According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 11 million tonnes of seafood were consumed in 2021.
Adobe Stock
Last month, Norway signed a historic free trade agreement with India whereby numerous products will be experimented a gradual reduction to zero customs duty over a period of five years.
Moreover, other products will get an immediate elimination of customs duties, while others several reductions over seven or ten years.
Therefore, it is worth asking how Norway will tackle this new scenario, which could be highly beneficial for its exports and aquaculture sector, considering that only China and Indonesia have a higher total seafood consumption than India.
In more detail, over 11 million tonnes of seafood were consumed in 2021, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The issue here is that the country is also a massive seafood producer as the total production in 2021 accounted for more than 14 million tonnes. In other words, India was the 6th world's largest exporter of seafood in this same year.
On the contrary, Indian imports are virtually non-existent. Over half of India's salmon imports came from Norway, the Norwegian Seafood Council confirms.
Consequently, it is expected that Norway will capitalize on this beneficial and unique agreement in Europe, and we may begin to detect new movements and trends in its seafood export market.
Recently, the Indian shrimp sector has come under scrutiny due to reports published by Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) and the Associated Press.
Both reports denounce that human rights, forced and child labor and environmental abuses in Indian shrimp sector continue to occur partly due to a regulation lack from the Indian and U.S. governments.
Furthermore, the Global Seafood Alliance has confirmed that it has begun to investigate the shrimp producers in India which hold Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certificates.