Norway is the world’s second largest exporter of fish, only passed by China. The value of exported fish and fish products in 2012 was more than NOK 52 billion. Salmon counted for 60 percent of the exported fish.
Russia has ambitious plans for fish breeding. By 2018 they plan to produce 80.000 tons of fish.
“I believe we will be able to build a new, large industry in Norway. In the same way as we have a huge supply industry for the oil industry, we want to build a large supply industry for the fishery sector”, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen said to e24 after a meeting in Moscow with her Russian counterpart Andrey Krayny.
The two countries have decided to establish a working group to develop Russian fish farming industry. “They are very interested in getting help, and our companies have both the technology and knowledge needed to build sustainable fish farms”, Berg-Hansen said. She believes that export of fish farming equipment in some years can be as big a business as export of the fish itself. Almost all equipment used at fish farms in Norway today is of domestic production.
Still ‘njet’ to 13 Norwegian fish exporters
A delegation from the Ministry of Fisheries and the Norwegian Food Safety Authorities was in Moscow last week to try to solve problems connected to Russia’s ban on imports from fifteen Norwegian salmon and trout producers. Two of the companies are now given green light for export after having their production facilities inspected by Russian authorities this summer. The 13 others still have to wait for additional inspections in November.
According to Russian Rosselkhoznadzor, laboratory tests made in April this year showed that parts of the Norwegian fish imports contained too high levels of parasites. Russian authorities threatened to ban all imports of Norwegian fresh fish.
Over the last years, fish export to Russia has boomed and the Russian market is now the biggest for Norwegian seafood. So far in 2013, the Norwegian exports to Russia has declined year-on-year within practically all fish products, among them salmon (19%), trout (10%), herring (32%) and capelin (46%). However, the value of the Norwegian export remains significant. In the first five months of 2013, the export was worth €307 million, a five percent decrease from the same period in 2012, figures from the Norwegian Seafood Council show.
