Norwegian seafood exporters have beaten all previous records by shipping seafood worth NOK 65 billion (USD 8.1 billion, EUR 7.2 billion) for the year to date, which represents an increase of 26 percent or NOK 13.2 billion (USD 1.6 billion, EUR 1.5 billion) compared with the first nine months of 2015.
According to new figures published by the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), the Scandinavian country’s September exports marked an all time high, totaling NOK 8.8 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 978.3 million), an increase of 31 percent or NOK 2.1 billion (USD 262 million, EUR 233.5 million) compared with September 2015.
“The value of Norwegian seafood exports has doubled over the past six years. September exports alone are equal to seafood exports for the whole of 1990. Norwegian seafood is a scarce resource in the world market. With stable volumes supporting this growth in demand coupled with high prices for most products and this explains the basis of our record year to date,” said Geir Havard Hanssen, communications director with the NSC.
“The value of seafood exports to markets that just 10 years ago were quite modest, is now two, five, and in the case of South Korea – nine times larger. The United States, Italy and South Korea are good examples of strong growth markets and they demonstrate the breadth of Norwegian seafood exports. Norway exports now a quite a lot of salmon, trout, cod and crab to the U.S., while Italy, which has a long tradition as a stockfish market has also now developed an appetite for Norwegian salmon. To South Korea, we now export large quantities of salmon for raw consumption, as well as crab and mackerel,” he said.
So far this year, Norway’s salmon exports have totaled NOK 44 billion (USD 5.5 billion, EUR 4.9 billion), an increase of 30 percent or NOK 10.1 billion (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) year-on-year. At the same time, its trout exports have amounted to NOK 3 billion (USD 374.3 million, EUR 333.4 million), an increase of 98 percent or NOK 1.5 billion (USD 187.1 million, EUR 166.7 million) year-on-year.
Also demonstrating strong growth, Norway’s whitefish exports have totaled NOK 10.3 billion (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1.1 billion), up 9 percent or NOK 842 million (USD 105.1 million, EUR 93.6 million) from the same nine-month period in 2015.
The value of its pelagic exports has also increased, with herring and mackerel achieving totals of NOK 2.1 billion (USD 262.1 million, EUR 233.5 million) and NOK 1.8 billion (USD 224.6 million, EUR 200 million) respectively, up 45 percent and 13 percent.
Last but not least, Norway has exported crab worth NOK 731 million (USD 91.2 million, EUR 81.3 million) so far this year, an increase of 89 percent year-on-year. This export total includes NOK 414 million (USD 51.7 million, EUR 46 million) of red king crab and NOK 286 million (USD 35.7 million, EUR 31.8 million) of snow crab.
