NOVEMBER 15, 2018 

By: Jemima Kelly in Reykjavik

If Britain hadn’t lost to Iceland in each of the three bilateral “Cod Wars” between 1958 and 1976, Tomas Thor Eiriksson wouldn’t be in business. 

Since then, the white demersal fish native to the Atlantic has been one of Iceland's most important exports, and the UK one of its biggest consumers. Most of the Icelandic cod going to Britain is the frozen variety, to be breaded or battered for sale in fish and chip shops up and down the country and supermarket freezers in, er, Iceland.

But the huge growth in tourism since 2000 -- and therefore in the number of passenger flights -- has meant that Iceland has been able to export an increasing amount of fresh fish (most boat journeys are too long to keep the fish from going off). It can be sold to wholesalers and fancy supermarkets like Waitrose, at a premium -- air freight is about four times as expensive as sea freight:

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ICELAND 
Friday, January 20, 2017, 20:50 (GMT + 9)

Four fisheries in Iceland have announced their plans to join forces with Codland to build a marine health products plant in the Reykjanes peninsula, in southwest Iceland.

The fisheries are HB Grandi, Samherji (Icefresh), Vísir and the initial plan is to raise a marine collagen plant which will utilize fish skin to manufacture marine collagen for various health products and global nutraceutical markets.

Codland was founded in 2012, when the Iceland Ocean Cluster brought together seven fishing and ocean-related companies to make the most of every part of fish and promote further development of the raw material.

"We are now in the process of designing the Marine Product Health House,” Tómas Eiríksson, CEO of Codland, said.

The executive pointed out that there is a huge strength in having these large fisheries joining forces, as they can provide a stable and first class products for the production.

"This shows well the value of clustering in the seafood industry," Thor Sigfusson founder of the Iceland Ocean Cluster, highlighted.

"By increasing collaboration we build trust and companies can together with startups make great things,” he concluded.

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