Smoked salmon back on European menus, says Seafood Council

Smoked salmon is now making a comeback in many European markets after sales dropped off during the pandemic, says the Norwegian Seafood Council.

With Christmas less than three weeks away the peak season for smoked salmon sales is now approaching, with Poland leading the way in that growth.

Poland is Norway’s largest processing market for Norwegian salmon, both fresh and cured.

Seafood Council analyst Paul T Aandahl said: “After the pandemic we saw a fall in home consumption of smoked salmon in Europe.

“Now we are again seeing volume growth in several of the major countries in Europe,” he added.

November was also a good month for farmed trout exports with volume sales growing by 31% to 6,397 tonnes. The November value increased by 25% to NOK 561 million (£41m) with Ukraine, the United States and Lithuania the main markets.

In fact war-ravaged Ukraine was the largest single market last month with an increase in export value of NOK 54m (almost £4m) or 171% compared to a year ago.

Paul T. Aandahl said: “This is the first time since the war started that Ukraine became our biggest market for trout.

“Salmon is also popular, and together with trout, Ukraine is Norway’s 15th largest salmon fish market in November, with a total export value of NOK 209m (£15m). This is an increase of 44% compared to November last year.”

Farmed cod sales, which barely showed up on the export radar a couple of years ago, continue to make progress.

Exports in volume terms rose by 93% on a year ago to 960 tonnes which was worth NOK 56m (just over £4m) – representing 39% of the value of all fresh cod exports in November, said says seafood analyst Eivind Hestvik Brækkan at the Norwegian Seafood Council.