Norwegians are buying less fish

SalmonSalmon.Sushi.Photo: pixabay.com

Norwegians are buying less fish

Last year, Norwegian sales of fresh fish fillets fell by 23% from 2015. In the first quarter of 2017, sales have fallen by 42% from 2016.

Sales are down for fish products as a whole by 15% in the first three months of this year. These figures have caused Norway’s Seafood Council (Norges Sjømatråd) to sound the alarm, wrote VG newspaper.

‘This is serious. We are now seeing an increasing downturn that we must take seriously’, said Renete Larsen, CEO of the Seafood Council.

She called for efforts toward recovery from government, food stores and industry. Larsen believes that price is a major reason for people buying less fish. It has increased by an average of 6% between the first quarter of 2016 to the same period this year.

Price of Salmon increased

The average price of salmon has increased by 30%, from NOK 55.56 in January 2016, to NOK 72.37 in January this year.

Larsen also suggested that seafood is not promoted enough in stores, but, among others, Norgesgruppen disagrees.

They claim their chains have maintained fish promotion despite falling volume, and they believe the price increases are the reason for customer dissatisfaction.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today