Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), a marketing organisation owned by Norway's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, is promoting Norwegian seafood products in Thailand to cash in on growing demand for seafood, notably salmon.
Jon Erik Steenslid, regional director for Southeast Asia at NSC, said recently that the company has partnered with Thammachart Seafood Retail Co, the leading provider of premium imported and local fresh, frozen and smoked seafood to retailers in Thailand, to promote more consumption of Norwegian seafood in Thailand.
The export value of Norwegian seafood to Thailand was about 5 billion baht in 2017, a 17% increase from 2016. The volume increase was 7% or 26,000 tonnes. Of the 26,000 tonnes, 12,000 tonnes was fresh salmon and 14,000 tonnes was mackerel and trout.
The continued popularity of Japanese food in Thailand spurred demand for fresh salmon imported from Norway to grow by 40% last year, the highest in a decade.
The council sees an opportunity to raise awareness about Norwegian seafood in Thailand, particularly salmon, and chose Thammachart as the first local retailer to receive NSC's trademark "Seafood from Norway" to signify the origin and quality.
"Nobody knows salmon like the Norwegians do," Mr Steenslid said, adding that Norway is a country with a long-celebrated tradition of living as one with the ocean.
He said this culture makes Norway truly a nation of seafood and one of the leading seafood exporters in the world, shipping about 1.3 million tonnes last year.
Total export volume of Norwegian seafood products globally was about 2.6 million tonnes last year.
Of the total, some 70% was exported to Europe, 20% to Asia and the rest to other countries.
"There has been a steady growth of Norwegian seafood products in the Asian market in the past 5-6 years," Mr Steenslid said. "Thailand is the largest Asean importer of Norwegian seafood products."
Even so, the exported portion of Norwegian seafood products to Thailand is still 1% of the global volume.
Mr Steenslid said Thailand is a promising market, with potential to increase consumption of Norwegian seafood products because Thai people love seafood and younger customers are more interested in product quality and are concerned about the sourcing of products.
This year is providing an opportunity to promote quality seafood products, particularly salmon from Norway, he said.
NSC predicts the export of Norwegian seafood to Thailand to grow by 5-10% to 5.25-5.5 billion baht this year.
Julian G Davies, chief executive of Thammachart Seafood Retail Co, said the company plans to open three or four locations of The Dock seafood and lobster bar and an additional 10-15 food and drink outlets at retail stores this year.
Moreover, the company will expand its seafood products to new restaurant chains this year.
By doing so, Thammachart expects sales to increase to 780 million baht this year, up 30% from last year's 600 million baht.
The company provides fresh and frozen products at 155 seafood counters for five retail chains.
