While Americans are increasing their consumption of salmon, consumption of the fish is falling in Europe. The market situation is becoming demanding, says the Seafood Council.

Salmon consumption has fallen by 8 percent in one year, measured in euros. Exports to the United States fell by 5 percent in dollars, according to Intrafish.

The market situation is about to become more demanding, says managing director Christian Chramer of the Seafood Council to the newspaper.

This happens at the same time that the industry is affected by ground rent tax. Although many people support ground rent tax, there is little doubt that the government is introducing this at a bad time, when Norwegian business is under great pressure due to sky-high energy prices, rising inflation and a krone in free fall.

It was only in kroner that the value went up, and that is due to a rare weak krone exchange rate, writes Intrafish. The value of Norway’s total seafood exports ended at NOK 13.1 billion in May, which is an increase of 7 percent compared to May last year. (NTB)

In European countries, we see a decreasing trend in the frequency of salmon meals, says consumer analyst Lars Moksnes at the Seafood Council.

The numbers are not dramatic, but the arrows are going down across most measurements. Therefore, we are probably talking about a negative trend.

There is a certain possibility that the reduction in salmon consumption is due to the general weakening of the European economy. Germany is leading the entire Eurozone into recession, of course salmon is not the cheapest food a family struggling to make ends meet chooses.

In the USA, consumption of salmon is growing, but this clearly does not help Norwegian exports. When the ground rent tax was proposed last autumn, several large investments in the salmon industry were put on hold, with many workers being made redundant.

This is bad news for the productive Norwegian coastal industry.