The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) warned about it last month, behind the big numbers, the picture of Norway's seafood exports was not as so positive. In April, the big figures again speak of increases. Last month, Norway exported seafood products worth NOK 12900 million (EUR 1093 million / USD 1202 million), 14% more, i.e., NOK 1600 million more (EUR 135.6 million / USD 149.2 million) than the same month in 2022. However, as the NSC highlights, this growth was achieved only due to the currency effect and the recorded export volume is the lowest since 2007.
"For Norway as a seafood nation, it is positive that the value of export products continues to increase, but the growth in April is solely due to a currency effect", said Christian Chramer, CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Council. "Measured in euros, the export value fell by more than 5 per cent and in dollars by 3.7 per cent. The weak Norwegian krone that is driving the value up", he explained.
One way or another, the fact is that the value continues to rise, and it does so largely thanks to aquaculture. In April, exports from the aquaculture sector, with species such as salmon and trout, accounted for 78 % of the total value, a historic figure. Only once before this year had this proportion been higher, in August 2016.
If throughout Q1 2023 – repeated in January, February, and March – the reporting of Norwegian seafood exports could be summarized as value up, volume down, the same has happened in April. A total of 160,000 tons of seafood products were exported from Norway last month, the lowest volume for this month since 2007, when exports totaled 125,000 tons.
"The downward trend with falling volumes also continued in April. Among other things, this applied to trout, grayling, and several whitefish species, while the volume for salmon is at a standstill compared to the same month last year", explained Christian Chramer. Although, as he said, it affected the different species differently, there is something striking in that statement: although the value continues to rise, the volume of salmon is stagnating.
In April 2023 Norway exported 81,498 tons of salmon with a value of NOK 9700 million (EUR 822 million / USD 904 million). Compared to last year, this represents an increase in value of 21%, NOK 1700 million more (EUR 144 million / USD 158.4 million). However, the total volume remained unchanged compared to 2022, and this was despite increased demand in two important markets such as the U.S. and China. Denmark, the United States, and China were, in that order, the three markets with the highest growth in value in April.
Denmark was the country with the largest increase in export value last month, with an increase of NOK 440 million (EUR 37.2 million / USD 40.9 million), or 71%, compared to the same month last year. Paul T. Aandahl, Seafood Analyst with the Norwegian Seafood Council, explained the reason. "Denmark is the largest transit market for Norwegian salmon. The fish is taken over by the customer in Denmark before it goes on to other markets, mainly in the EU". Around a quarter goes to the German market, but from there it is also distributed to other important markets such as Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Poland. "The growth to Denmark compensates for the decline in direct exports to these markets", added Aandahl.
For the U.S. and China, the reason for the growth is much more straightforward, as Christian Chramer explained. "While Denmark is a large processing and transit market, it is consumption that drives growth in the USA and China. For the USA, we see that Norwegian salmon gets good traction from reduced supplies from other producer countries. In China, consumption is increasing strongly after the reopening of society, which Norwegian salmon is benefiting from", said NSC's CEO.
