Farmed cod sales continue to surge

Fish farming now accounts for more than a third of all fresh cod being exported from Norway.

While Norwegian aquaculture news continues to be dominated by salmon and trout, white fish farming is taking on a growing importance, the latest information from the Norwegian Seafood Council shows.

In July Norway exported 2,384 tonnes of fresh cod to a value of NOK 137m (almost £10m).

While overseas sales of trawler-caught fresh cod have been declining (the volume fell by 19% last month), farmed cod exports have been rising at an impressive rate.

In July the total was up by 200% to 955 tonnes and it looks set to go on rising.

The value of farmed cod exports rose by 185% to NOK 58m (£4.1m). While that figure is still very small when set against salmon, it shows that white fish aquaculture is making its mark.

Farmed cod is popular because supplies are guaranteed – unlike wild-caught cod, which is often subject to weather-related interruptions, especially in winter.

Profits from cod farming remain elusive, however. Ode recently reported losses of NOK 93m (£6.6m) last year, mainly due to the cost of large-scale investment in future growth. The company is still in a build-up phase, where investments in biomass growth are greater than income.

It said the build-up phase will continue this year before the company starts to generate a positive cash flow, towards the end of next year.

The Seafood Council says that while most of Norway’s wild cod is exported to Denmark, the Netherlands is now the largest destination country for farmed cod.

Both of these destinations are transit markets. Most of the fish goes on from the Netherlands to the large fresh markets elsewhere in Europe , both as whole fish and processed.

Eivind Hæstvik Brekkan, seafood analyst at the Seafood Council said: “The decline in the export of fresh cod is expected, with lower quotas resulting in fewer landings and a lower volume.

“At the same time, we see that the export of farmed cod is stable at approximately 1,000 tonnes per month.”

Norway’s largest wild cod source, the Barents Sea, is expected to see substantially reduced quotas next year.