Italians turning to salmon – that’s amore!

Italy is falling in love with salmon in a big way, says the Norwegian Seafood Council.

Export figures show that the country has been leading the way in terms of growing demand in the run up to Christmas.

Measured in euros, Italy is now the third largest growth market after Poland and Denmark, Europe’s two main salmon processing countries.

Seafood Council analyst Paul T. Aandahl said growth was up by around 50% to NOK 2.3 billion (£168m).

Tom-Jørgen Gangsø, the Seafood Council’s Italy envoy, said this success had been achieved despite the country experiencing higher inflation following the Covid outbreak along with higher salmon prices, specifically, which have both contributed significantly to increased costs.

A weaker Norwegian krone was the explanation, but there was also a relatively strong demand for salmon in Italy, he said.

Gangsø went on: “Salmon has a large shelf space in the grocery store compared to many other [types of] seafood.

“In addition, there has been a large increase in the number of restaurants that have salmon on the menu in recent years. We see that, among other things, in the increase in the number of pokè restaurants, that is raw fish or sushi style restaurants,” he explained.

Despite the war, Ukraine has also returned to buying farmed salmon in a big way and recently saw the largest percentage increase in export value.

And the UK has become Norway’s largest shrimp (prawn) market, particularly strong when it comes to the frozen peeled variety.

The value of shrimp exports to the UK has increased by NOK 796,000, (almost £60,000) or 11%, from a relatively strong October last year.