August this year saw yet another record broken for exports of Norwegian seafood production –with exports worth NoK12.50 billion. While this is the highest ever single month in terms of export values and 30% on August 2021, as costs are rising and exporters face growing challenges.
The driver behind the record August exports is high volumes of and prices for salmon, while last month also set records for whitefish, according to Børge Grønbech, acting CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Council.
‘At the same time, we are in a period of high inflation, lower purchasing power, challenging logistics and increased production costs. In addition, a strengthening of the krone against the euro, as we have seen in August, is a challenging factor for exporters. This means that we are still in challenging times in which to conduct global trade,’ he said, adding that home consumption of seafood in Europe is down compared to last year.
‘This is to be expected since more people this year are holiday and eating their meals outside the home. So, more seafood goes to the hotel, restaurant, and canteen segment. These are important and well-paying purchasers of Norwegian seafood,’ he said.
August this year saw the North American market for Norwegian seafood up by 59%, Asia by 33% and Europe by 29%.
‘There’s still great global demand for Norwegian seafood, and that is good news for Norway, both as a seafood and an export nation. If we compare the value of Norwegian seafood exports in August this year, they are equivalent to the entire export total of 1990. This illustrates how strong the development has been,’ Børge Grønbech said
Of last month’s export figures, the largest chunk is due to the salmon sector, with 120,700 tonnes of salmon with a value of NoK9.2 billion exported
‘Demand for Norwegian salmon continues to increase. Although prices have fallen compared to earlier this year, salmon prices are at a record high for the month of August,’ said Norwegian Seafood Council analyst Paul T. Aandahl.
