A total of 290,208 kilograms of fresh fish, with a wholesale value of Lm799,420, were landed at the wholesale fish market in the second quarter of this year, a substantial increase in volume over the same period last year on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
The Maltese National Office of Statistics said the wholesale volume of fresh fish landings increased by 18.9 per cent and the wholesale value by 31.1 per cent. The main species responsible for the increase in volume were tuna and shrimp.
Tuna landings increased by 41.6 per cent, from 147,875 kilograms to 208,361 kilograms, and shrimp landings by 91.6 per cent, from 7,500 kilograms to 14,371 kilograms.
On the other hand, swordfish landings decreased by 35.6 per cent, from 49,306 kilograms in the June quarter last year to 31,753 kilograms in the same period this year.
On a regional level, Maltese fishermen accounted for 86.8 per cent of all landings. Whereas tuna (73.7 per cent) and swordfish (11.6 per cent) were the main species that were landed at the fish market by Maltese fishermen, the main landings by their Gozitan counterparts were tuna (59.4 per cent), shrimp (14.1 per cent) and bogue (10.6 per cent).
In June, the "all items" price index for fresh fish stood at 150.9 points rising marginally by 1.3 points or 0.9 per cent when compared to the same period last year. The increase in the index was mainly due to increases in the wholesale prices of stone bass (+24.2 per cent) and dorado (+10 per cent).
Tuna registered a drop of six points (4.9 per cent) in the wholesale price index from 141.7 points in June 2002 to 137.8 points in June 2003 due to the substantial increase in volume of tuna landings.
The "all items" fresh fish volume index also registered an increase of 2.7 points or 3.3 per cent from 81.9 points in June 2002 to 84.6 in June 2003, although fish landings at the organized fish market were still below 1995 levels. Tuna landings (+10.5 per cent) were mainly responsible for the increase.
The NSO said that in the second quarter this year, aquaculture exports registered a drop of 8,966 kilograms (2.5 per cent) from 361,597 kilograms last year to 352,631. The January to June period of 2003 showed a substantial drop in exports, by 187,768 kilograms (26.9 per cent), from 696,856 kilograms last year to 509,088 kilograms this year.
The value of exports increased by Lm91,796 (15.6 per cent) from Lm588,013 in the June quarter last year to Lm679,809 in the June quarter this year.
During the first half of 2003 the total value of aquacultural exports amounted to Lm923,746. Compared to the same period last year, aquacultural exports dropped by Lm33,052 or 3.5 per cent.