Trout sales gather momentum

The Norwegian Seafood Council reports that volume exports of farmed trout from Norway jumped by 58% last month to 7,174 tonnes, year on year. By value they were worth NOK 678 million (£48m), also a rise of 58% on a year ago.

Once again, the United States, the Ukraine and Thailand, which has just signed a free trade deal with Norway, were the principal markets.

Paul T. Aandahl at the Norwegian Seafood Council said: “As with salmon, high sea temperatures have recently led to growth in production and increased exports of trout.

The volume growth led to a value record during January, and the value was the second highest ever. It was only beaten in August last year.

Meanwhile UK newspaper the Guardian reports that restaurants are increasingly preferring trout, which has also seen a surge in popularity among home cooks.

Trout sales are up 36% year on year at Waitrose, compared to 10% for salmon, with raw trout seeing the biggest increase, up more than 60%.

At online retailer Ocado, trout sales have jumped higher – up 54% year on year, while salmon sales rose just 9%.

The Norwegian Seafood Council also says that January was an all-time high month for farmed cod which accounted for 35% of the export value of fresh cod.

Farmed volumes were up by 26% to 1,337 tonnes and the value up by 56% to NOK 92 million (£6.5m).

This is not surprising, given the (lower) quota situation for wild-caught cod, according to Seafood Council analyst Eivind Hestvik Brækkan.