Norway continues to smash seafood export records

Norway’s fishermen and fish farmers notched up another record last month as seafood exports hit NOK 15.4 billion (£1.29bn), the largest value ever for a single month. Once again, farmed salmon was the main driver.

The total is 27% higher or NOK 3.3bn (£277m) higher than October last year and NOK 727m (£60.5m) up on this year’s September figure.

The export total for 2022 so far is NOK 123.9bn (£10bn).

Norwegian Seafood Council CEO Christian Chramer said: “Norwegian seafood exports experienced historic growth in October. The value of NOK 15bn is not only a solid record. This means that every single day this month we exported seafood worth just under NOK 500m.

“These are enormous numbers and show how important this industry is to Norway.

October proved to be another record month for salmon, with exports up 5% in volume terms to 133,105 tonnes and the value increasing by 27% to NOK 10.6bn (£892m) on a year ago.

Seafood Council Paul T. Aandahl explained: “The most important contribution to the increase in value is increased price.

“In addition to increased export volumes, the Norwegian krone is weakening, and we have increased further processing of salmon in Norway, which also contributes positively.

“The proportion of fillets is still increasing compared to last year. If we convert to round weight, fillet products accounted for around 15% of exports in October. “

Poland, with its large salmon processing industry, was the main market, followed by the United States, helped by a strong dollar exchange rate, said Aandahl.

Farmed trout exports totalled 5,019 tonnes in October, down by 18%. But the value increased by 15% to NOK 465m (almost £39m) with the US, Thailand and Japan the main markets.