Iceland´s ocean economy, the economic impact and performance of the ocean cluster in 2011

Abstract

Despite Icelandic fisheries having evolved from traditional fishing and fish processing into a business sector consisting of a variety of fields such as technology, logistics, marketing and more, there has been a lack of an overall picture of these activities, hereby called "ocean cluster". This shortage of information about this cluster has hampered discussions on its impacts and abilities. The public debate most often implies that the number of jobs created by fisheries are declining. However this debate only focuses at fisheries and fish processing, important foundations of the cluster, but far from its only activities. At the same time, it is assumed that fisheries will become less important for the economy in the years to come, as increasingly less manpower is needed for fishing and fish processing.

Research has shown that the traditional fisheries sector is a base industry in Iceland (Arnason & Agnarsson). This means, among other things, that its contribution to gross domestic product is greater than national accounts indicate. On the foundations of the traditional fisheries industry, a collection of sectors and firms has formed, meeting the fisheries' needs. This collection of sectors as such has been named the ocean cluster. Studies show that a large part of the total contribution of the fishing sector to GDP comes from the operations of the ocean cluster.

In their paper, "The Importance of the Ocean Cluster for the Icelandic Economy" (2012), Ragnar Arnason and Thor Sigfusson attempted to analyze the nature and scope of the ocean cluster, evaluate its future growth potentials and describe the conditions needed in order for the cluster to grow. The aim of this report is to continue that work and get a picture of the ocean cluster's development over time. By continuing this research it is possible to compare performance between years and further examine the cluster's growth potentials and the conditions that must be in place to utilize these potentials. In doing so, the contribution of the ocean cluster to the economy can further be increased.