Over the last week, we have heard how Iceland’s volcano has crippled the airline industry by shutting down flights across Europe. This may have also negatively affected Europe’s international trade. For instance, based on some quick analysis in TradeIQ, salmon exports from Europe to the U.S. dropped from 375 metric tons in 2009 to 80 metric tons in 2010 between March 14 and April 14.

The bright side is that the volcano has bolstered exports from non-European countries. TradeIQ shows that the United States imported 656 metric tons of salmon from New Zealand between March 14 and April 14, 2010. This is a 3544% increase over the previous year’s imports over the same period of 18 metric tons.

The graph below illustrates the trend in salmon exports to the United States from Europe and New Zealand over the last three years for the period from March 14 – April 14:

It is worth noting that trade with Europe will be most impacted in the Air Cargo industry. Given this sector's serious struggles over the last year, this is especially bad news. Please look for Zepol's analysis of Air Cargo data for April in our Census data update in June.