Fish are flying in a big way these days as salmon farmed in the waters of Scandinavia becomes a consumer staple in Asia.

Some of the statistics are really out there in terms of their scale – and also their implications.

Salmon now accounts for some 50% of Nordic air freight volumes. Since 2006, salmon has grown at almost 10% annually, with some 600 tonnes of salmon leaving Scandinavian airports every day, Tom Erling Mikkelsen, head of air freight for salmon farmer Marine Harvest told a recent conference in Bangkok.

While Mikkelsen speaks of the global industry, sources on the ground in Asia back this up, with the region logging up some strong figures.

Chilled salmon imports into China are expected to triple by 2025. The estimated potential is 240,000 tonnes against 80,000 tonnes or so last year, Sigmund Bjorgo, China director for the Norwegian Seafood Council, told Asia Cargo News.

Southeast Asia, another key region, has seen a 30% increase in the amount of salmon flown in from Norway over the past five years, Jon Erik Steenslid, Southeast Asia director at the Norwegian Seafood Council, told Asia Cargo News, adding that “the volume is now close to 70,000 tonnes per year.”

Wherever the numbers are leading, the air cargo industry is happy about the new trunk route between Scandinavia and Asia.

“Last year was an incredibly successful year for Norwegian seafood exports, which obviously impacted us very favourably. We carry roughly 100 tons of salmon per day. 2017 was also a record-breaking year for Finnair too and our revenue grew 13.5% on 2016,” Fredrik Wildtgrube, Finnair’s head of global sales, told Asia Cargo News. “It’s a growing market and our biggest market.”

It is, though, already bumping infrastructure limits in both Asia and Scandinavia.

“The present capacity is covering the market needs. However, would like to see more online capacity from Oslo Airport to shorten down the lead time,” Marine Harvest’s Mikkelsen told Asia Cargo News. “The fight for capacity is being visualized during holidays like Christmas.”

This is corroborated by sources on the ground in Asia. “The industry is in need of air freight capacity,” said the NSC’s Bjorgo, adding it is needed on planes and at airports at both origin and destination.

Help is at hand, though, with Scandinavian carriers laying on more flights – Finnair has just opened its seventh destination in China, Nanjing – but also new terminals.

“With the opening of our new COOL Nordic Cargo Hub terminal, we have improved our capability to handle special cargo, including perishables, in dedicated environments that – together with short tarmac transport time - will ensure product integrity,” said Finnair’s Wildtgrube.

Against this will be its Norwegian rival in Avinor, Norway’s government-owned airport operator. Avinor is now partnering with exporters to build a new world-leading seafood air cargo facility in order to address what it terms Norway’s “severely underserved” air cargo market.

“For example, only 35% of Norwegian seafood exports are flown directly out of Norway by air. The rest, often bound for Asia, Africa and North America, is trucked down to continental Europe to find available outbound air cargo capacity,” Avinor’s website says.

Its response is to build a world-leading air cargo facility to maximize the potential of seafood in the bellyhold of planes using Oslo airport.

“The new facility will be 17,000 square metres and fully automatic. It is expected to be in operation by 2020 and handle 250,000 metric tons of seafood annually,” the Avinor website says.

This will also need matching improvements on the software side, according to Mikkelsen, who argues for a more collaborative approach down the supply chain.

Current focus at the destination is not so much infrastructure but the existence of a cold supply chain, which is gaining “more awareness” in China of late, Bjorgo says.

Today a vast majority of fresh, air-flown Norwegian salmon is consumed in the major urban areas of Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, cities close to international airports, meaning the short time from arrival to end user has little impact on product quality.

Occasionally there are snafus, Steenslid notes, but as more fresh seafood is imported to the region, the handling knowledge and conditions are improving as well.

“As consumption of Norwegian fresh salmon is growing outside of the major urban areas, we expect to see more challenges in terms of cool chain management and logistics, particularly in some of the less developed markets,” he added.

One other issue is regulations about what can be imported, although Norwegian salmon has good access to the main markets in Southeast Asia, Steenslid said.

“An exception to this is Indonesia, which has a very stringent and at times somewhat unpredictable import system requiring special permits and licenses, where this has previously been an occasional volume limiting factor according to industry stakeholders,” he added.

Otherwise, the limits are few. Avinor says salmon exports from Norway are expected to grow by 500% during the next 20 years, although Mikkelsen, who uses the same figure, puts it over three decades. There is going to be a need for capacity both in Asia and Europe as 500% growth, no matter the time frame, is an awful lot to digest.

By Michael Mackey

Southeast Asia Correspondent | Bangkok