Viking Magazine - February 2015 - 20

MAYBE YOU'VE
NEVER THOUGHT
ABOUT HOW COD
COULD BE USED
IN CANTONESE
COOKING OR
HOW SALMON
WOULD TASTE
IN A CURRY, BUT
YOU CAN BET
THE NORWEGIAN
SEAFOOD
COUNCIL HAS.
" Norwegian Seafood is
aiming at new markets
for many of our products,
but especially salmon, and
among those countries
targeted is India, " says
Christian Chramer, a council
spokesperson. He's calling
from Mumbai, fresh from
a meeting with the Oberoi
Group of hotels. Oberoi " has
approximately 30 percent of
the hotel market in India, " he
explains, and " they will be
serving Norwegian salmon. "
A delegation from the
seafood council is hosting a
week of chef demos, seminars
and dinners in India to attract
commercial buyers from that country. The chefs on this trip
are Norwegian, serving Nordic-style preparations that put
the flavors of fish and shellfish at the center of the dish. Later,
the council will recruit some of India's best chefs to adapt
Indian recipes, swapping traditional chicken or lamb for fish
to win over more food service customers and home cooks.
" It's quite normal to do in many markets, to bring in local
chefs at a high level and bond with them and make them
our salmon ambassadors, because they will be powerful
influencers, " Chramer says.
SALMON RULES
Norway exports seafood to about
150 countries already, including a
small amount to India. With more
than 51,000 miles of coastline,
Norway has become the secondlargest
provider of seafood to the
world after China. But even a giant
in the industry needs to grow and
diversify, avoiding reliance on just a
few markets.
Russia, Norway's largest export
market for seafood, became a good
case in point. It placed a ban on
imports of Norwegian fish and
shellfish last August as a regulatory
response to Norway's support of
European and American sanctions
against Russia after its recent actions
in Ukraine.
FISHING:
NOK 18.7 billion
AQUACULTURE:
NOK 42.3 billion
31%
69%
SOURCE:
NORWEGIAN
SEAFOOD COUNCIL
The Russian ban was one of the
biggest challenges the Norwegian
seafood industry faced in 2014, says
Marit Solberg, chief operating officer
for Bergen-based Marine Harvest
ASA and board chairperson for the
Norwegian Seafood Council. On
average, Norway had been sending
more than 5,600 tons of seafood each
week to Russia. " To reallocate all that
fish to other markets, that was quite a
feat, but it balanced out after a couple
of months, " Solberg says.
A lot of what was destined for
Russia, and most of the seafood
Norway exports to the world now, is
salmon. In 2013, salmon accounted
for nearly two-thirds of Norway's
total revenue from seafood exports:
NOK 39.8 billion out of an export
total of NOK 61 billion, about $6.3
billion and $9.7 billion, respectively.
Historically, it's been easy for any
diner or traveler to conjure images of
Norway as a fishing and fish-eating
nation: peaked racks of drying cod
that mirror the mountain peaks in
Lofoten; the famous open-air fish
market in Bergen; eating shrimp
0 VIKING MONTH 2015
sonsofnorway.com
PHOTO BY PER EIDE STUDIO / NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD COUNCIL
PHOTO BY KJELL OVE STORVIK / NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD COUNCIL
PHOTO BY STUDIO DREYER-HENSLEY / NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD COUNCIL
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - February 2015

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