November 8, 2007

Norway seafood exports hit record at 514 million euros

Seafood exports from Norway reached record-high sales of 4 billion Norwegian crowns (US$748.6 million/514.4 million euros) in October 2007, up by 75 million crowns (US$14 mln/9.6 million euro) from October 2006, figures by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC) and Statistics Norway showed.

Salmon exports dropped by 55 million crowns (US$10.3 million /7.1 million euros) to 1.5 billion crowns (US$280.7 million/192.9 million euros), due to lower prices. The decrease was offset by record-high export volumes.

Herring exports increased by 118 percent to 540 million crowns (US$101.1 million /69.4 million euros). Mackerel exports fell by 9.0 percent to 567 million crowns (US$106.1 million/72.9 million euros).

Cod exports shrunk by 22 percent to just over 1.0 billion crowns (US$187.1 million/128.6 million euros). Frozen cods posted the largest decrease of 96 million crowns (US$17.9 million /12.3 million euros), was registered by exports of frozen cod. Exports of salt cod, however, rose by 25 million crowns (US$4.7 million /3.2 million euros) to 462 million crowns (US$86.5 million/59.4 million euros).

Exports to Russia and Ukraine rose by 100 percent and 107 percent respectively, driven by increased exports of herring, salmon, mackerel and salmon trout.

Exports to the European Union (EU) fell by 231 million crowns ($43.2 mln/29.7 million euro), pulled down by decreased exports to Denmark, the UK and Portugal, which are among the largest export markets for Norwegian seafood in the EU.

In the first 10 months of 2007 seafood exports also hit an all-time high of 29.4 billion crowns (US$5.501 billion/3.780 billion euros), up by 1.2 billion crowns (US$224.6 mln/154.3 million euros) from a year ago.