Nesvik to seek UK assurances on seafood trade

NORWAY’S seafood minister is in Britain this week to seek assurances over fish exports after Brexit kicks in at the end of the month.

Harald T. Nesvik will be attending the Norway Seafood Council’s UK summit in London on Wednesday where he is expected to deliver an important speech.

He will also take the opportunity to holds talks with George Eustice, his UK opposite number. Britain is one of Norway’s most important markets for salmon, cod and haddock.

Nesvik said: ‘We are approaching the date the British will leave the EU. Therefore, we must prepare for the post-Brexit period so that trade can continue as it is today, and that market access for seafood to the UK will be the same.

‘The UK is important for the seafood industry. Last year we exported seafood worth more than NOK 6 billion (£520 million), which was three per cent higher than the figure for 2018.

‘This is the highest in value we have ever sent to Britain and it makes the country the fifth most important market for Norwegian seafood.’

While at the UK summit, Nesvik is likely to talk about the importance of sustainability and Norwegian seafood in general.

He said before he left Norway: ‘Seafood is climate friendly, sustainable, healthy and has a wonderful taste. That makes it incredibly important that we focus on what we bring up from the sea.’

The UN, he said, claimed that two-thirds of the amount of food we need can be produced in the sea, but today only two per cent comes from marine sources.

‘Here is the potential to develop seaweed, kelp, shells, snails, shellfish and other fish species, that we can produce and that we already have the expertise to develop further,’ Nesvik added.