Norway: the Prime Miniser renews her commitment to develop aquaculture
Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, recently renewed her commitment to continue developing the aquaculture industry to provide the Country with higher value-added resources while maintaining environmental impact low. In perspective, many economists estimate that, on the medium term, the production of fish products will replace the oil & gas sector as Norway’s leading export product and its major source of wealth.
In 2017, Norway exported 2.6 million tons of fish, worth approximately 11.7 billion dollars. Out of the total fish exported in 2017, 72% was produced by aquaculture and 28% through traditional fishing practices. Atlantic salmon is the most important species and represents more than 68% of total fish exports in terms of value and 38% in terms of volume, followed by trout while cod, another of Norway’s top exports, is not intensively bred in aquaculture.
The future challenges are represented by environmental protection issues, feed production and product quality. Fishing, aquaculture and fish processing are labour-intensive activities that require a wide range of skills and competences, thus creating job opportunities for marine biologists, food processing professionals and fishing crews.
