Opnunarræða á Nordic Innovation 5. júní 2013

Ladies and gentlemen

It is a great honour for me to welcome you here in Iceland on the occasion of this second Nordic Marine Innovation Conference. In particular I welcome the contributions by our friends from Canada and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific which is a good reminder of how international the marine sector has become and how vital international collaboration is. 

Let me start by reminding ourselves that the Nordic co-operation is one of the oldest and most wide-ranging regional partnerships in the world, involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. This collaboration is becoming well recognized around the world as a coherent region with similar values and social- and economic structures. This is very important and can e.g. be seen in the light of a recent analysis by the newspaper Economist that asked the question: “Why the world should look at the Nordic countries”. The heading to this article on the cover was even more impressive: “The next supermodel”.

It is particularly pleasing that this Marine Innovation Programme has come to a good start as marine related industries are very important in the region. Some 14 different projects are being run with some 60% of the participants coming from private marine businesses. That indeed is impressive and is a clear testament to the practical focus of the programme that not only focuses on marine food production but sustainability issues and international competitiveness.

As a case in point, fish exports by the Nordic countries combined are by far the largest in the world by value, with China in second place. Interestingly, fishery products are globally by far the most internationally traded food products in the world with close to 40% of all fish produced entering international trade.

Moreover, (Even more importantly) the food industries in general constitute a higher share of the national economies of the Nordic countries than that of other rich countries. That also translates into very strong supporting industries, such as manufacturers for food harvesting and processing equipment as well as active research centres and Universities.

This of course, constitutes various (great /tremendous) opportunities in a globalized world that needs more food. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the world will need 70% more food to feed its 9 billion people around the middle of this century. Most experts agree that the oceans, the rivers and the lakes will play a key role in providing that extra food as land based production will not be able to meet the demand. The phenomenal growth in aquaculture in recent decades ( about 10% per year) shows us what can be achieved as almost every second fish on the human food table now originates in aquaculture or close to 50%.

At the same time science is ever more conclusively underpinning the excellent quality of marine food, not least the fish oils. Most health authorities now recommend that people eat at least two meals of fish per week. Doing so makes us less prone to heart disease and it improves neurological development not the least infants. All of this, of course, comes as no news to us Icelanders; we have known this for centuries. But it helps to have Science proof it.

As a further point in this direction, evidence seems to indicate that the Nordic countries have a diet that is similar in structure and yet different from that of other countries, e.g. other European countries, the United States of America and the Mediterranean countries. We could call this the Nordic Diet with capital letters. This preliminary result was presented at conference named ”Nordic Values in the Food Sector” that was held here in Reykjavik 4 years ago . And now there is a new study just presented in the Journal of Internal Medicine that indicates that the Nordic diet is particularly healthy. If that is so, (one does not have to be a magician to see that) it could of course open up various possibilities for the Nordic food sector.

Here in Iceland, our fish production mostly comes from wild fish stocks that are in abundance around our island. As most of you know our economy is very dependent on fisheries and the people of Iceland feel the pinch with their private economy if the fisheries are doing badly. As a consequence, through the years we have fostered a fisheries culture that involves constant improvement and finding ways to economize. Good examples are how quickly we embraced the motorization of the fishing fleet at the turn of the 20th century, the power block for purse seining, the computerization of the fish processing and now robotization of many of the more menial tasks. Iceland now has one of the lowest manpower use in the world per kilogram of fish caught and processed.

Technology has actually really had a tremendous impact on the sector in the last decades. As an indication, from 1995 to 2007 the number of fishermen was reduced from 7 000 to 4. 700, or by 33%. The number of fish workers over the same period was reduced from 9 000 down to 3 000, or by 67%.

With increasing unemployment problems in the developed world technological advancement is meeting increased scepticism. But we know from history that it is easy to create new jobs for people but that it is very hard to create new jobs that produce real value that can support the high standard of living that we expect. Without innovation there is no progress, and without progress there is stagnation. In my view the idea that enough progress has been made is a very dangerous one. There is no way but to keep on innovating.

I wish you a productive conference. Have an enjoyable stay here in Iceland.