Norwegian fishermen trawl for latest ideas

The Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC) is hosting a Norwegian seafood day at the Humber Seafood Institute on March 16.

Norway’s major seafood processors and exporters will be promoting their fresh and frozen seafood to an audience of seafood processors, traders and fish markets based in Grimsby and Hull as well as representatives from packaging, logistics and storage firms.

Norway exports about £245m of seafood a year, mainly cod, haddock and salmon, a third of which comes directly into the ports of Grimsby and Immingham.

The Greater Grimsby and Humber seafood processing cluster processes 70 per cent of the UK’s seafood.

The NSEC, led by chairman Rolf Domstein, has brought together experts from Norway to speak on topics including fisheries management, food safety and “green” logistics.

Mr Domstein said: “The UK is the fifth largest seafood market for Norway in terms of value. Norway sold seafood to UK for £245m in 2009, and when this year is over I am convinced that this number will be even higher. This indicates how important UK is for us, and I’m very pleased to see that NSEC on behalf of the Norwegian seafood industry will increase the market activities on Norwegian cod and haddock in 2011 in this increasingly important market.

“I hope this Norwegian seafood day will take us a few steps further in building good relationship and trade between Norwegian suppliers and the Greater Grimsby and Humber seafood cluster.

“Our goal is that this will result in plentiful and quality Norwegian cod and haddock meals for the great British consumers in the years to come.”

Norway, which has more than 50,000 miles of coastline, exports seafood to 150 countries round the world and employs more than 13,000 fishermen.