The Industrial Fishing Production Index of INDEC recorded a year-on-year increase of 232.6% in June, with marine fishing growing by 325.9% and freezing vessels by 411.3%
The recovery of the real economy in Argentina continues to add milestones. According to the latest official report from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) on the Index of Fishing Industrial Production (IPI pesquero), general fishing activity recorded an astonishing year-on-year jump of 232.6% in June 2026 compared to the same month of the previous year.
At the more specific level of species, the sector's performance shows an absolute and unprecedented record in the category of crustaceans, strongly driven by shrimp as the main engine of the activity. The fishing of crustaceans experienced a truly meteoric year-on-year jump of 11,206.3% in June, accumulating a rise of 187.2% so far this year. The impact of this category was so significant that it contributed alone 268 percentage points to the positive year-on-year variation of the IPI pesquero.
Industrial Fishing Production Index
This monumental growth is consolidated with a cumulative increase of 34.8% in the first half of 2026, in addition to experiencing a seasonally adjusted monthly growth of 28.4% compared to May 2026. The activity demonstrates that, by normalizing the operational framework, the private sector responds immediately and vigorously.
When breaking down this general behavior by sectors of activity and type of fleet, the results reveal the supremacy of the private sector at sea.
The marine fishing was the undisputed protagonist of the month, recording a colossal year-on-year growth of 325.9% and accumulating an improvement of 38.6% in the semester. This dynamism contrasts with the much more moderate advance of aquaculture, a sector that recorded a year-on-year increase of 9.1% and 18% in the annual accumulated.
Likewise, the reactivation was strongly reflected in both segments of the commercial fleet, evidencing the success of private investment and the freedom to work.
The freezer vessels led the surge with a dizzying year-on-year increase of 411.3% and a cumulative rise of 56.3% in the semester. Meanwhile, the landings of fresh vessels accompanied with a solid increase of 95.3% compared to June 2025, accumulating an improvement of 2.9% from January to June.
In the other species categories, the numbers show disparate but logical dynamics. The group of fish maintained a positive and constant evolution, with a year-on-year increase of 11.8% in June, a cumulative advance of 14.6% in the semester, and contributing 6.2 percentage points to the overall year-on-year variation.
The president, Javier Milei
In clear contrast, mollusks experienced a collapse of 91.4% year-on-year and a drop of 7.8% in the semester's accumulated, subtracting 41.6 percentage points from the general index. However, the very biological and commercial dynamics explain this decline: it responds to the lower contribution of the species squid (Illex argentinus), whose catch had already ended prior to June.
The explanation behind this historic and year-on-year jump is not a mathematical coincidence, but the direct contrast between two models of the country: the freedom of production versus union extortion.
In June 2025, a violent "union conflict paralyzed a large part of marine fishing", particularly due to a salary dispute between business chambers and unions that kept the freezing fleet docked for several weeks, resulting in "the tangonera freezing fleet paralyzed by labor conflicts. Four lost months.".
That artificial paralysis of the old model destroyed national wealth, as in an activity governed by biological cycles, "the resource that is no longer captured at the available moment forever abandons the Argentine productive equation". In fact, during 2025, "the fleet remained docked until August 1st".
