New research from Seafish, reveals that current financial difficulties in many sectors of the UK fishing fleet started in 2006.

fishnewseu.com 26/08/2008

The 2006 UK Fleet Survey, published this week by Seafish, contains the most recent comprehensive set of data available, and builds on the work carried out by Seafish's economics team in previous years.

Survey findings suggest that:

--Despite increased earnings, rising costs, especially fuel, meant that less profit was generated by the UK fishing fleet in 2006 compared to 2005;

--Total expenditure of marine fuel was £98 million in 2006, 9% more than in 2005;

--Profit generated by the UK fleet decreased by 24% between 2005 and 2006 to £95 million;

--Gross Value Added (GVA) generated by the UK fleet decreased by 27% between 2005 and 2006.

 John Anderson, Economist at Seafish, said: "These findings are the latest and most comprehensive available on UK fleet financial performance. Although fuel prices increased steeply in the first half of 2008, these results show that despite stable earnings in 2005-2006, fuel prices began to rise, crew wages deteriorated and profits fell by nearly a quarter between 2005 and 2006."

He added: "Because Seafish exists to help vessel owners, along with the rest of the seafood industry, we are offering a free business performance benchmark for all UK vessels. This will help owners to track their business performance against other similar vessels and identify opportunities for improvement. "

 Seafish say several skippers from around the UK have recently endorsed the usefulness of the authority's fleet research.
 

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