May 1, 2006

 

Norway hopes to open new aquaculture markets in South Korea

 

Opportunities abound for Norway's aquacultural companies to provide expertise to their counterparts in South Korea, according to a review and analysis of the Korean aquaculture industry made by Innovation Norway Korea.

 

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that would be coming into effect in July this year has piqued the interest of Norwegian aquaculture companies to expand in South Korea. The FTA, signed in 2005 between Korea and the EFTA countries would abolish most of the customs duties on 407 imports. Duties on fresh salmon, trout and cod, would be immediately lifted, and duties for frozen salmon would be gradually phased off.

 

Korea is one of the world's major fishing nations, ranking 6th in aquaculture.  In 2004, total production volume was 2.5 million tonnes, 37 percent (933,000 tonnes)  of which came from aquaculture. 

 

Catches from fisheries have declined as a result of overfishing in the Korean coastal waters and international quotas. 

 

In addition, the restrictions come at a time when seafood consumption is rising. Koreans consumed 4.2 million tonnes of seafood in 2005 and per capita consumption is about 49 kg, among the highest in the world. Due to the inability of the fishing industry to meet demand, fish farms proliferated and imports of large amounts of fish and fish products resulted.

 

In 2005, South Korea imported 1.1 million tonnes of seafood valued at US$ 2 billion, mainly from Asian countries and the US. Total Norwegian seafood export to Korea in 2005 was 14,100 tonnes at a value of US$ 25 million. Norway is the 9th largest exporter of fishery products to Korea.

 

Marine aquaculture is the most active type of farming in Korea, more than 120,000 ha were licenced for marine aquaculture.

 

The major species of Korean aquaculture are seaweed, shellfish and finfish. The first two account for more than 90 percent of current production while marine finfish represents only 7 percent.

 

However, that may change as marine finfish farming is gaining interest. Now, there is more research in artificial breeding for high value marine fish species such as flounder, black rockfish, sea bream, sea bass and yellow tails.

 

In recent years, production from South Korean farms have been declining due to environmental problems caused by the use of moisture pellet feeding and disease.

 

Increasingly, there are calls for the aquaculture industry to be consolidated instead of its scattered small-farms structure now. There is also a need to adopt advanced technology to increase production and reduce cost, the report added.

 

The review identified aquaculture consultation, offshore caging, automated systems, processing systems and traceability systems among others as areas which Norway could share its expertise. 

 

Innovation Norway Korea has assisted Norway's efforts to market its seafood in Korea for the past 8 years.