October 11, 2007

Norway's September seafood exports down 10 percent on-year

Norwegian seafood exports fell 10 percent to 2.8 billion Norwegian crowns (US$515.1 million) in September 2007, down by 343 million crowns (US$63.1 million) from September 2006, according to the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC).

Exports were mainly pulled down by reduced volume of wild-caught fish and lower prices of salmon and salmon trout.

However, for the first nine months of the year, seafood exports rose to an all-time high of 25.5 billion crowns (US$4.7 billion), up 19 percent or 1.1 billion crowns (US$202.4 million) from the year-ago period.

Although exports of salmon and salmon trout rose in September 2007, total value fell by 4.4 percent to 1.6 billion crowns (US$294.4 million).

Taking figures for the first nine months however, the figure rose 3.0 percent to 13.6 billion crowns (US$2.5 billion), of which salmon accounted for 12.6 billion crowns (US$2.3 billion).

During this period, Russia was the largest importer of salmon trout with exports of 371 million crowns (US$68.3 million), whereas France remained the largest salmon market with a value of 2.0 billion crowns (US$367.9 million).

Exports of bacalao fell by 8.6 percent to 309 million crowns (US$56.8 million) with Portugal being the largest single market with exports of 94 million crowns (US$17.3 million). In the period January to September 2007 bacalao exports rose by 12 percent to 2.2 billion crowns (US$404.7 million).

Exports of salted fish dropped by 10 percent to 67 million crowns (US$12.3 million).

Exports of herring fell by 13 percent to 147 million crowns (US$27 million) while mackerel was also down by 2.5 percent to 1.7 billion crowns (US$312.7 million).