Arctic Char Fish Farming in Iceland: Is it a Success?

• Main Authors: Heimisson, Asgeir Fridrik, Arnason, Ragnar, Olafsdottir, Gudrun
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English; unknown
• Subjects: Aquaculture > Economic aspects; Seafood industry > Congresses; Fishery management > Congresses; Seafood > Marketing; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/p2676x25w

Fish farming has grown very rabidly during the past few decades. One component of this expansion is the introduction of new species, previously unknown to most consumers, to world markets. Arctic char, a cold water salmonid, is one of these species. In 1987, the total commercial supply only amounted to 31 tons but in 2013 the world production was approximately 8 thousand tons, with Iceland contributing to nearly half of this supply. This paper describes the evolution of the Icelandic Arctic char fish farming industry and attempts to assess its future prospects. Among the questions the paper attempts to answer are: Can the industry so far be characterized as being successful and in what sense? What is the environmental footprint of the Arctic char production compared to that of other farmed fish? Can Arctic char be supplied to global markets in large quantities at competitive prices? To answer these and other questions, an economic production model of this industry is developed based primarily on Icelandic empirical data. The resulting short and long run Arctic char supply functions are compared to the supply function for similar species such as salmon. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.