Weak consumer purchasing power in China, a low availability of large-sized salmon in Norway, and a shift in processing operations to Vietnam have contributed to weakening Norwegian seafood trade to the world’s largest consumer market to start 2024.
Sales of Norwegian salmon into China fell in the first half of 2024, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council’s (NSC) office in China, with salmon shipments were down 14 percent by volume and 17 percent by value year over year from January to May 2024.
“NSC does not give sales predictions since this can influence price-setting in markets, but in general terms, we can see a somewhat weaker development so far this year compared to last year,” Jan Eirik Johnsen, interim head of the NSC’s office in Shanghai, said. “But, this is still the second-best January-to-May results for Norwegian salmon to China. One of the reasons for the reduction in export is lower availability of big sizes of salmon that the Chinese market is demanding.”
Norway's mackerel sales in China have also declined, according to Johnsen.
“The big picture is that less Atlantic mackerel is exported for reprocessing in China. Last year saw a 44 percent drop in the export to China compared to the year before. This trend is also continuing this year,” he said.
Norway has steadily upped its efforts to spur demand for mackerel in China. Victoria Braathen, who is now the director of the NSC’s U.K. operations, told SeafoodSource in 2019 while she was the director of the council’s Chinese operations that a mackerel-focused partnership between COFCO and Pelagia illustrated “the potential of Norwegian mackerel both in foodservice and for home cooking” in China.
The NSC has also focused marketing money in recent years on creating a premium market for Norwegian cod, with advertising campaigns in China’s first-tier cities promoting it as “Norwegian Arctic Cod.”
Those efforts seem to have paid off, as Norway's cod exports to China ...
