Norway to encourage seafood exports

The National Export Council in Norway is planning investment ideas to encourage seafood exports, in close cooperation with the business community, as part of the initiative "Hele Norge eksporterer" (All Norway exports).

In 2022, the government launched "Hele Norge eksporterer" through which authorities, the business community, and other parties collaborate to achieve the export target by strengthening and streamlining the work with exports, and by creating a common export culture.

In more detail, the government has launched four strategic export promotion initiatives in offshore wind, the maritime sector, the health industry, and product production and design. Also, it has been decided that tourism will be the fifth sector.

After this, the head of the National Export Council, Arvid Moss, suggested that seafood become the sixth investment in the All Norway exports program.

"Norway is in a unique position where, through decades of producing food fish, we have developed a complete value chain for aquaculture, and we see that the supplier industry to the seafood industry has great export potential," she detailed.

Concerning this, the government has set a goal to increase exports outside oil and gas by 50 percent by 2030.

The Norwegian seafood industry

Norwegian seafood is the second largest export industry in Norway, after oil and gas. In 2023, it was exported for a value of NOK 172 billion.

Precisely, Norwegian seafood export values registered record-breaking during Q3 2024 with an increase of 5% compared with last year, reaching NOK 44.1 billion.

To achieve the government target, Minister of Industry Cecilie Myrseth wants to involve the business community and all stakeholders. "Now we want to promote the seafood industry as the next major export venture," she added.

Additionally, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss, said: "A recent report from Nofima shows that the supplier industry to the seafood industry is growing strongly and now employs more people than the core business in the industry. It confirms that we have managed to build a comprehensive value chain for seafood that underpins the export of food from the sea."

Finally, Myrseth recalled that this sector supplies feed, vaccines, medicines, well boats, service vessels, and other equipment and technology for the aquaculture industry and the fishing fleet.

"The value chain holds many opportunities, and we look forward to looking at the proposals from the National Export Council," she concluded.