Norwegian salmon off the menu in China
For awarding the Chinese dissident with Nobel Peace
Prize last year:
NORWAY: Furious about last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in Oslo
to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Beijing has taken aim at
Norway’s emblematic salmon, plunging exports to the Asian giant into
freefall.
China a year ago blasted the Nobel committee’s decision to honour
someone it considered a “criminal” and said the choice would “damage”
Norway’s relations with Beijing.
It has since vented its anger by ordering stricter veterinary
controls on Norwegian salmon analysis so time-consuming that the fresh
fish has ended up rotting in Chinese warehouses, according to industry
officials.
“We expected our exports to China to increase by 30 to 40 percent
this year. That didn’t happen,” Christian Chramer, spokesman for Seafood
Norway, told AFP.
That is an understatement: sales of fresh Norwegian salmon were
halved in the first eight months of the year.
The drop was particularly noticeable immediately after the Nobel
prize ceremony in December 2010: Norway’s exports totalled 1,000 tonnes
in December, falling to just 315 tonnes in January, then 75 tonnes in
February.
In order to circumvent the obstacles put up by Beijing, fish farmers
have shipped their products destined for mainland China first to Hong
Kong. But this loophole has now also largely been closed. The Norwegian
government has said it may lodge a complaint with the World Trade
Organisation.
By targetting salmon, Beijing has selected a product highly
associated with the Scandinavian country in a move that does no harm to
Chinese consumers who can easily get their hands on Scottish salmon
instead. Some Norwegian companies are trying to compensate for the drop
in salmon exports by increasing their sales of salmon from their farms
in other countries.
But it does “not totally” compensate, said Marine Harvest, a world
leader with fish farms in six countries.
“China’s salmon consumption is growing and the other (non-Norwegian)
producers are now increasing their sales,” says Joergen Christiansen, a
spokesman for the group that farms one-fourth of the Atlantic salmon
produced worldwide.
While the Chinese market remains small compared to countries like
France and Russia, it is growing rapidly and is expected to become a key
outlet in the future.
Excluding the salmon issue, bilateral trade between China and Norway
has seen “no Nobel effect yet,” according to a study conducted by
Statistics Norway and published in early September.
In the first half of the year, Chinese imports from Norway rose by 16
percent, primarily because of the rise in prices of raw materials of
which the Scandinavian country is rich. AFP |