Norway and the EU finally reached an agreement on mackerel quotas and the management February 2011 ~ LAWOK LEPAS

Norway and the EU finally reached an agreement on mackerel quotas and the management February 2011

North Atlantic mackerel in early December 2010, after long and hard negotiations, which in some quarters were dubbed “the mackerel war”.

The “mackerel war” refers to the refusal by Iceland to continue negotiations with Norway and the EU and accept a lower quota, after unilaterally setting its own quota for 2010 at 130 000 tonnes. In retaliation, Norway banned landings of mackerel from Icelandic vessels in Norwegian ports, while the EU threatened to do the same. The EU and Norway felt that Iceland, which did not fish mackerel until recent years, should not have a greater quota because of its history of non-participation in this fishery. However, in recent years, mackerel has started moving further to the north and west, thus entering Icelandic waters, prompting Iceland to claim a larger share of the quota.

The mackerel quotas for 2011 will amount to 583 882 tonnes, of which 183 069 tonnes were allocated to Norway, and 400 813 tonnes to the EU. As under the previous agreement, both parties will be allowed to take a larger part of their quotas in each other’s EEZs. Horse mackerel quotas remained at the same level as in 2010 at 181 000 tonnes.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands have been selling lower quality mackerel to mainly east European markets, and at lower prices. This has put pressure on prices in these markets, and Norway registered a slight decline (-1.5%) in average export prices during 2010. However, price reductions were strongest on east European markets such as Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Prices on the most important market, Japan, actually showed a 6.2% increase compared with 2009.

The largest supplier, Norway, registered a dramatic increase in exports during the first nine months of 2010. Exports of frozen whole mackerel increased by 124% to 176 600 tonnes. However, preliminary figures for the whole of 2010 indicate that exports grew by only 40%, though still an impressive increase. Prices remained relatively stable compared with 2009.

The most important market for frozen mackerel, Japan, showed a dramatic return to previous levels with a 370% increase in imports of Norwegian mackerel during the first nine months of the year. However, these figures hide a shift in seasonal imports, as the total for the whole of 2010 indicates an increase of only 40.2%.

China continues to import massive amounts of frozen mackerel from Norway. During the first nine months the country imported 33 276 tonnes, which was 203% more than during the same period in 2009. However, by the end of the year, China’s imports of Norwegian whole frozen mackerel amounted to 51 033 tonnes, which represented a 52.3% increase over 2009. German imports of frozen mackerel have been steadily rising during the past four years, and this trend continued in 2010. During the first nine months of the year,

German imports of whole frozen mackerel increased by 12.1% to just over 7 400 tonnes. Of this, only a very small part came from Norway (366 tonnes). Ireland and the Netherlands were the main suppliers to Germany.