Norway displaced China in 2020 as the leader in exports of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and other aquatic invertebrates.

While Norway exported this group of products worth 10.717 million dollars last year, China’s external sales were 10.712 million dollars.

So Norway’s superiority over China was marginal.

Norway’s exports of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates registered a year-on-year drop of 8.2%, while the corresponding Chinese exports contracted 14.1% year-on-year.

On the one hand, Norwegian external sales are concentrated in salmon, mackerel and cod.

On the other hand, China’s fish exports and other covered products include mollusks, fish fillets, cod fillets and Alaska pollock fish fillets.

Fish exports

In context: The Norwegian economy continued to recover towards the end of 2020, after the Covid19 pandemic triggered a sharp drop in activity in the spring of 2020.

The economic evolution was stronger than expected and preliminary figures from the national accounts indicate that containment measures are depressing economic activity somewhat less than previously assumed.

Since the turn of the year, higher infection rates have led to stricter containment measures and the reopening of the company has been postponed.

Activity slowed slightly in January and continental GDP was about 1.5% lower than before the Covid-19 outbreak.

Also, according to the Central Bank of Norway, services related to culture, hotels, restaurants and transport are particularly affected by the measures.

In southeastern Norway, some segments of the retail trade have also been affected by recent mandatory business closures.

The strict rules to enter Norway are limiting the supply of foreign labor and are expected to weigh on construction activity in particular.

Among the largest destinations for Norwegian fish exports are Poland, Denmark, France, United States and the Netherlands.