Norwegian seafood exports up in June

June brought a welcome spell of sunshine for Norwegian seafood exporters, with salmon producers once again in the lead.

Yesterday the Norwegian Seafood Council published figures showing record exports of NOK 82bn (£6bn) for the first six months of this year.

June’s export numbers showed a marked improvement on April and May. During the month overseas sales were worth NOK 14.9bn (just over £1bn), a rise of 21% over June 2022, higher than the six month average of 18% and up on the average for the two previous months.

The Norwegian krone is around 14% weaker than a year ago and this has had a beneficial effect on Norway’s overall export performance, although some politicians are expressing concern that the currency is becoming too weak.

Seafood Council CEO Christian Chramer said: “Volume growth in salmon contributed to June being the third best single month of all time for Norwegian seafood exports, measured in Norwegian kroner.”

The country’s salmon farmers exported 98,697 tonnes of salmon worth NOK 10.9 billion (£800m) last month, with volumes up by 14% and value by 26%.

As usual the main markets were Poland and Denmark, two countries with large salmon processing sectors, followed by France.

Trout also did well last month with the value up by 12% to NOK 530m (£39m) and the volume 9% higher at 5,071 tonnes. The US, Japan and Lithuania are Norway’s largest markets for trout.

The Seafood Council also reported that the largest demand for cod, its second most important seafood earner, is coming from the UK where sales increased by 30% during the first half of this year.