norway

Norway exported 2.7 million tonnes of seafood worth NOK 105.7 billion (~EUR 10.2 billion) in 2020. This is the second-highest value ever and is the equivalent to 37 million meals every day throughout the year or 25,000 meals per minute. The total volume of seafood exports increased by 2 per cent in 2020, while the value was reduced by 1 per cent, or NOK 1.5 billion, compared with the record year of 2019. Seafood exports for the second year in a row exceeded the ‘magical’ NOK 100 billion mark and that this was achieved during the corona pandemic in 2020 was fantastic, said Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Minister of Fisheries and Seafood.

A new testing platform, developed by Norway-based Orivo in collaboration with BioMar, makes use of advanced DNA-technology. The test determines the species composition of marine ingredients with a high level of precision, able to detect the presence of even very small amounts of DNA. BioMar believes that DNA-testing of marine ingredients in the aquaculture industry is a natural answer to the demand from customers and stakeholders for improved transparency and traceability throughout the seafood value chain.

Skretting, the world’s largest producer of feed for farmed fish, has committed to a deal with insect breeder Protix that could see up to 5.5 million servings of salmon containing insect meat brought to the market per year. Aquaculture production is expected to grow by 30 million tonnes in the near future. Sustaining this growth will require an additional 45 million tonnes of raw materials for feed, creating a potential ’protein’ gap between feed production capacity and demand for farm-raised fish. One potential way to bridge this gap is through insect protein. Not only could insects help bridge the protein gap, it will do so sustainably, contributing to a circular bio economy. A new Protix insect production facility in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, breeds insects that convert vegetable residual flows into sustainable protein, contributing to a future-proof, circular bio economy.

In May 2019, over eight million farmed salmon suffocated in northern Norway as a result of a persistent algae bloom. The estimated economic loss from the 10,000 tonnes of farmed salmon is as much as 620 million Norwegian Kroner (EUR64m). The enormous algae blooms, which occurred due to warm weather, spread rapidly around Norway’s northern coast, sticking to fish’s gills and suffocating them. While wild fish can swim away from the lethal clouds of aquatic organism, farmed fish are trapped at the mercy of the algae. Harmful algae blooms occur when the normally occurring aquatic plants grow out of control due to warm weather. Some are attributing the severity of these algae attacks to climate change.

The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has issued warnings that toxic algae blooms (Chrysochromulina leadbeaterii) are affecting an area of about 450 kilometres of the northern coastline of Norway.

Scientists and industry representatives from 16 countries gathered in Tromsø, Norway in the middle of June to launch a new EU-funded project, AquaVitae. The 36 project partners are from European countries as well as Brazil, South Africa, Namibia, and North America.