Earlier this week the Federal Fishery Agency threatened to strike Norwegian fish export to “restore justice” after Norwegian Coast Guard arrested the Russian trawler “Sapphire II” recently, a case that became a hot topic.
Russia is one of Norway’s largest markets for seafood with an import worth €625 million in 2010.
The companies Sotra Fiskeindustri AS and Egil Kristoffersen og Sønner AS, both producers of salmon and trout, were banned from the Russian market in the beginning of October, Izvestia reports.
The third company, Kirkenes Processing, has received a note saying that a ban will come into force from October 25. The plant is located just a few kilometers from the border to Russia and some 40 percent of the organically produced salmon from this company is sold to the Russian market. Dharma Rajeswaran, CEO of Villa Organic, finds the Russian authorities’ ban incomprehensible:
- Norwegian Food Safety Authorities carry out inspections of our products on a regular basis, and we have had no complaints from their side. They have never found any listeria bacterias in our fish, he says to BarentsObserver.
Rajeswaran does not want to speculate on any underlying causes for the ban and says that they are doing everything they can to satisfy the market. Villa Organic will probably not have any large economic losses because of the ban:
- Organic salmon is very popular, and we can always find other buyers for our fish. But the Russian market is our closest – why would you send organically produced food miles away if you can sell them almost in your own neighborhood?
In an interview with Izvestia representatives from Egil Kristoffersen og Sønner AS say that their products are tested every day and sold worldwide, and they cannot explain why they are banned by Rosselkhoznadzor.
The Russian Fish Union have invited Norwegian producers to a workshop in Oslo to discuss if there is a relation between the incidents in the Svalbard zone and the ban on exports, and what problems in general Norwegian exporters face when entering the Russian market.
Salmon is an important part of Russians’ menus during the New Year’s celebrations, so one can only hope that all problems with the import ban are solved well ahead of Christmas.
