Asia’s role in the future growth of farmed fish exports was a key theme of The Future of Norwegian Seafood Air Logistics Conference held in Oslo.

Norway a major seafood exporter usually farmed salmon, and despite the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine which, has resulted in closed airspace, the Scandinavian country is set to continue its decade-long record-breaking run.

Including August, this year Norway’s fish exports are more than kr21 billion (Norwegian krone) (US$1.95 billion), already ahead of the same period last year, Tom-Jørgen Gangsø, director, of marketing insight and market access, for the Norwegian Seafood Council in Tromsø, said in a keynote speech.

Another reason for August being important is the change it showed in the China market. Behind because of Covid lockdowns and the war in Ukraine since March, the China market has now caught up with where it was this time last year. “Asia is back on track,” said Gangsø.

This comes on top of a previous year which had seen “many records broken,” he added, including exporting 3 million tons of seafood exported and kr121 billion (US$11.9 billion) of export earnings, a figure some kr15 billion ahead of the year previously. To visualise, Norwegian salmon ends up on 42 million plates around the world every day.

While the lion’s share of Norway’s seafood exports is farmed salmon, records were also set for king crab and snow crab exports as well as mackerel exports.

Salmon has set its own records, especially in Asia, where exports in 2022 were three times higher than those in 2012.

There are strong national differences to consider. South Korea is the star of the class with a 10-fold increase over a decade ago. China and Thailand imported five times more than a decade ago, and Taiwan three.

“The growth rate has been quite incredible,” Gangsø said, before hinting at one of the issues the sector must watch. “But it’s not product-driven, it’s price-driven.”

There is solid optimism for the market, Gangsø said. Long-term, markets with large growing populations such as Africa and South America are already being eyed. Southeast Asia’s largest country by both size and population is in the frame: “Indonesia is one very high potential market where we have been struggling a lot with health certificate requirements.” (These are recurring issues.)

Underpinning this optimism is the emergence of new sales channels, which are set to make big markets even bigger. The key here is online sales, which will give a boost to the already large Asian markets, especially China, South Korea and Thailand.

“This category is expanding,” said Gangsø, mentioning new models of online sales such as quick and social types of commerce, live streaming and voice commerce. “Slowly, it is coming,” he said of the last, a particularly Chinese style of e-commerce.

Part of this is the rise of the more sustainability-aware consumer, someone who is concerned with more than just the price and factors in issues such as environmental and social costs.

There was scepticism at the conference about the rise of the ethical purchaser, especially in Asia where these ideas are less well-formed. However, Gangsø was clear on the need to talk about these issues to consumers who are more varied by the market as well as compared to those of a decade ago.

“Consumers are becoming a lot more complex,” he said.

In fact, he even hinted at activating the market’s potential in all its depth and scope relies on it.

“We believe that Asia can be even more important if market access issues are solved and we can increase if we know the consumer a bit better and take into account the differences between the different markets, segments and target groups,” he said.

By Michael Mackey

Correspondent | Oslo