During the past year Norway exported 1.1 million tonnes of cultured seafood, with a value of 71 billion kroner – an increase of 5 per cent in both volume and value terms compared to 2017.
Salmon has the largest share of any species measured in terms of both export volume and export value, with a total of nearly 1.1 million tonnes of salmon, worth 67.8 billion kroner, exported in 2018.
“Increased demand for Norwegian salmon in the EU market has contributed to Norwegian salmon exports to the EU exceeding 73 per cent, up from 71 per cent in 2017. Poland is the largest growth market in 2018, with exports increasing from NOK 1.1 billion to NOK 8.8 billion,” says Paul T Aandahl, seafood analyst at the Norwegian Seafood Council.
Trout is the country's second most significant farmed seafood species and Norway exported 46,400 tonnes, worth 3 billion kroner in 2018 – an increase of 16 per cent by volume, and 5 per cent by value compared to 2017.
“The volume growth of 16 per cent for trout exports is the result of normalization following low export volumes in 2017,” explains Aandahl.
Overall the country exported 2.7 million tonnes of seafood to reach the new record, which equates to 37 million meals of seafood every day of 2018.
“Although we did not pass the magical NOK 100 billion marker, this has been another good year for Norwegian seafood exports. In summary, records were broken for Norwegian seafood, both in terms of export value and export volume in 2018. This despite Brexit, the threat of trade wars and other challenges that have together created unpredictability in the world market. Seafood exports to the EU market have increased due to lower competition and a favourable currency situation against the euro. We see a decline in seafood exports to Asia, as a result of increased competition and continued challenging market access to China,” says Renate Larsen, CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Council.
“While the value of exports has increased by 60 per cent over the past five years, the volume has increased by almost 10 per cent. Greater volume growth is therefore highly desirable in order to develop the industry further. Our goal is for the industry to continue to grow, and as Minister for Fisheries, I work towards this goal every single day,” adds Fisheries Minister Harald Tom Nesvik.
