Norwegian seafood exporters shipped fisheries and aquaculture products with a total value of NOK 91.6 billion (USD 10.8 billion, EUR 10.2 billion) last year, eclipsing the previous export record set in 2015 by 23 percent or NOK 17 billion (USD 2 billion, EUR 1.9 billion), according to new figures published by the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC).
The EU was again the No. 1 market for Norwegian seafood with exports to the bloc totaling NOK 61.3 billion (USD 7.2 billion, EUR 6.8 billion, up 23 percent from 2015.
“2016 was a fantastic year for Norwegian seafood exports. Exports increased by 23 percent and passed NOK 90 billion for the first time. Sixty-seven percent of exports, measured by value, went to Europe. Norway is highly dependent on the European market,” said Renate Larsen CEO of the NSC.
In total, Norway exported seafood to 146 countries last year. Of these, Poland was the largest single market, accounting for NOK 9.7 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 1 billion) in 2016. But while Poland is an increasingly important consumer market, a significant proportion of exports to Poland go to processing and further distribution to the European market.
“Progressively more of the seafood we produce will be processed in countries other than those where it is eventually consumed. Here we see that Poland and Denmark are two key markets. In 2016 the biggest consumer markets for Norwegian seafood were France, Germany and the United Kingdom,” Larsen said.
France was the second largest market for Norwegian seafood last year with exports totaling NOK 7.9 billion (USD 929.7 million, EUR 877.8 million), up 27 percent or NOK 1.7 billion (USD 200.1 million, EUR 188.9 million), making it the second biggest growth market overall in 2016.
