Aberdeen On The Up – Fishupdate.com
Aberdeen On The Up By Bob Kennedy Published: 30 January, 2002
NEW business and an upsurge in haddock catching late in the year helped Aberdeen finish 2001 in a better- than- expected position in terms of fish tonnage and revenue.
Aberdeen Fish Producers Organization chief executive Hamish Gordon said that figures up to the end of last year showed that 16,575 tones of fish worth £20,835,477
were handled at the port.
This compares with figures for the year before of 19,772 tonnes worth £25,794,035.
Mr Gordon said that Aberdeens tonnage last year was down by 16% and value by 19%.
But if they went back to the beginning of last year thy were facing a cut in the cod quota of 45%, haddock down by 21% and whiting by 32%.
These three species represent about 80-85% of our landings and we saw a drop in landings of around 30% in the early part of the year Added to that, there was a shortage of haddock in the first half of the year.
But then of course there were bigger landings of haddock and there was additional business plus diversions to the port which helped to narrow the landings gap with the previous year.
This extra business was significant given that on some days Aberdeen landings were higher than those at Peterhead , something virtually unheard of nowadays.
And we were consistently level with them, Mr Gordon added.
Aberdeens upsurge began in about September and continued until the end of the year.