Fishing in Faroe Islands Presented to : Ms. Moushumi Zahur Presented by : Sadat Hossain Rashedur Rahman

Where is the Faroe Islands? The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of 18major islands about 655km off the coast of northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.

The primary activity in focus Fishing is the most productive primary economic activity in Faroe Islands. People’s survival depends on fishing in this part of the world. Thousands of tonnes of fish are caught every year in Faroe Islands. The economy of Faroe Islands is also highly dependent on the fishing industry.

How the economy is affected by fishing ? Fishery is and has been for many decades the main industry in the Faroe Islands. Fishery products, including farmed salmon represent 95% of the total Faroese export and around 20% of the Faroese GDP. Fishing has affected many economic indicators :

Unemployment More than 60% of the population in Faroe Islands are involved in fishing. Therefore any changes in the level of fish catches affect the unemployment rate directly. In the end of the 1990’s due to a slump in the fishing sector, majority of people were faced with unemployment since there are very few job opportunities in this country.

Export’s impact on the economy Faroe Islands export huge quantities of fishery products. In 2010 it was worth $824million. Out of the export items of the island 94% were fishery products. The main exporting countries are Russia, USA, UK, Germany and China. In 2014 it also had a trade surplus of 401million.

Gross domestic product of the island The economy of Faroe islands was the 166 th largest in the world in 2014 with a GDP of $2.163billion. The GDP per capita, that is the average income in the country has also started to rise as shown in the figure.

What makes Faroe islands suitable for fishing ? Abundance of water bodies Unlimited Fishing opportunities Poor agriculture, unsuitable conditions No wildlife

Conclusion In Faroe Islands, high dependence on fishing makes the economy extremely vulnerable. Being said that, the fishing activity is also the sole primary economic activity for survival for the population. Therefore though high dependence on fishing has its low but at least it is giving the country the opportunity to flourish.