Norway’s Marine Harvest, world’s largest fish farmer, has reduced its salmon harvest and Iceland put hold of its fresh fish exports due to air traffic woes. According to Marine Harvest the company would curtail its harvest volumes from Monday to avoid oversupplying Europe while exports to Asia and North America suffer from extended bans on flights across Europe due to volcanic ash spewed from Iceland.
Spokesman Jorgen Christiansen said the decision to reduce the volume was something Marine Harvest would have had to do regardless of the volcano situation, as high demand from European customers had led to fish farmers harvesting at a lower weight than optimal. The company told that it has export fish out of central Europe as well as Scandinavian airports over the past few days to deliver to customers in the United States and Asia.
Even if this situation (with flight bans) drags on, demand is still very strong and farmers will have to match the demand to their supply, Chirstiansen said. Ash cloud has crimped air traffic between Reykjavik and Europe, Iceland has been forced to put on ice fresh fish exports that make up more than 13 percent of its foreign-bound fish. Jon Asbergsson, Icelandic trade council general manager, opined that the current situation feeding into the frozen fish industry. It’s being diverted into frozen fish for a little less value.
