Morten Westby is a specialist in the Chinese market who also speaks fluent Mandarin.
Photo: Nordic Aqua Partners.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn, Nordic Aqua Partners, the Norwegian land-based salmon farming company operating in China, announced the appointment of Morten Westby as Commercial Director. "With his focused expertise and Mandarin fluency, Morten is very well-positioned to drive Nordic Aqua's commercial success in China's dynamic Atlantic salmon market," the company stated.
The appointment is a promotion for Westby, who, as WeAreAquaculture reported, joined the company in the fall of 2024 to take up the position of Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships.
With extensive experience in the Chinese market, his previous role had been as VAP Asia Manager at Lerøy Seafood Group, where, according to Nordic Aqua, upon his arrival at the company, "he played a crucial role in expanding their footprint across Asia".
Now, just over a year later, and after being appointed Commercial Director, the company—China's first commercial-scale RAS Atlantic salmon farm—has once again emphasized Westby's extensive experience in the Asian giant's market.
"Since joining Nordic Aqua in October 2024, Morten previously led business development and strategic partnerships. He brings deep expertise in the Asian seafood sector, strategic acumen, and profound insights into Chinese seafood and consumer markets—capabilities that directly align with Nordic Aqua's regional ambitions," it wrote on LinkedIn.
Effective January 2026, in his new role, Morten Westby has joined the local management team in Gaotang, Ningbo, with responsibility for sales, business development, and marketing.
As highlighted in the statement by Nordic Aqua Partners, China is currently a dynamic market for Atlantic salmon. Figures from the latest report by the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) on Norway's seafood exports in 2025 pointed in the same direction. "Thanks to increased e-commerce, better distribution channels and strong growth in salmon consumption, China became a growth engine for Norwegian seafood exports in 2025," the NSC CEO Christian Chramer explained in the report. "Last year, the volume of salmon to China was twice as high as the year before."
In that context, in the second quarter of 2025, Nordic Aqua Partners demonstrated that its land-based RAS Atlantic salmon farm on Gaotang Island, Ningbo, was capable of producing large-sized salmon at scale to target the country's premium market.
As the company explained at the time, the combination of proven biology, premium pricing, and long-term financing support placed Nordic Aqua in what it defined as "a unique position to build the leading salmon farming platform in China—locally produced, sustainable, and highly profitable."
The sales results for the third quarter of 2025 proved them right. Even in a context where its sales results reflected the overall decline in global spot prices for salmon, the price achieved by Nordic Aqua Partners during the period was on average EUR 0.46/kg above the spot price in Norway, equivalent to a premium of 9%.
"With a cost-efficient Stage 2 project and clear visibility toward 20,000 tonnes of capacity, we are positioning Nordic Aqua as the leading local producer of sustainable Atlantic salmon for the Chinese market," CEO Ragnar Joensen commented at the time.
The appointment of someone as experienced in the Chinese market as Morten Westby as Commercial Director is now a further step in that direction.
