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Dec 13, 2017 (newstodate): Norway's leading exporter of king crabs, Cape Fish is encouraged by two key positive developments in 2017, boding well for a sustained rise in export volumes to Asia, notably China.
First, uplift capacity is now provided by DHL with freighter services from Lakselv via Oslo to South Korea, continuing to Shanghai in China, and recently China cut import tax on live crabs by 50 percent.
-These are indeed very positive developments and we hope to see our export volumes to China increase, also including frozen products, says Bjorn Ronald Olsen, Cape Fish CEO.
-With today's freighter capacity from Lakselv our needs are well served and as experience in handling the traffic has been gathered, one weekly flight is sufficient for us while DHL has declared its willingness to consider even a second weekly flight.
-While uplift capacity is thus sufficient, the future growth in volumes is rather threatened by limitations on the quotas allowed. In 2018 the quota will be lowered by 400 tonnes as a result of the Norwegian/Russian agreement on fisheries in the Barents Sea.
-Even so, there is still room for growth. In 2016, 50 percent of our total production was live king crabs, in 2017 is has been 70 percent, and in 2018 the proportion will be about 90 percent fresh king crabs for export to Asia, especially China.
-Another type of crabs is snow crabs that is gaining in importance for export to China. There is a huge potential in this species, while the quota is currently rather low due to uncertainties over the actual snow crab population. The quote is currently about 5,000 tonnes but in a few years the quota may rise to up to 50,000 tonnes, constituting a vast new potential for us.
-As for the king crab, our export in 2017 will be around 300 tonnes, rising to some 400 tonnes in 2018. And after 2019 the quota may increase to some 2,000 tonnes in my understanding.
-China is by far the largest market, but volumes are also rising to other Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Macao, says Mr Olsen
First, uplift capacity is now provided by DHL with freighter services from Lakselv via Oslo to South Korea, continuing to Shanghai in China, and recently China cut import tax on live crabs by 50 percent.
-These are indeed very positive developments and we hope to see our export volumes to China increase, also including frozen products, says Bjorn Ronald Olsen, Cape Fish CEO.
-With today's freighter capacity from Lakselv our needs are well served and as experience in handling the traffic has been gathered, one weekly flight is sufficient for us while DHL has declared its willingness to consider even a second weekly flight.
-While uplift capacity is thus sufficient, the future growth in volumes is rather threatened by limitations on the quotas allowed. In 2018 the quota will be lowered by 400 tonnes as a result of the Norwegian/Russian agreement on fisheries in the Barents Sea.
-Even so, there is still room for growth. In 2016, 50 percent of our total production was live king crabs, in 2017 is has been 70 percent, and in 2018 the proportion will be about 90 percent fresh king crabs for export to Asia, especially China.
-Another type of crabs is snow crabs that is gaining in importance for export to China. There is a huge potential in this species, while the quota is currently rather low due to uncertainties over the actual snow crab population. The quote is currently about 5,000 tonnes but in a few years the quota may rise to up to 50,000 tonnes, constituting a vast new potential for us.
-As for the king crab, our export in 2017 will be around 300 tonnes, rising to some 400 tonnes in 2018. And after 2019 the quota may increase to some 2,000 tonnes in my understanding.
-China is by far the largest market, but volumes are also rising to other Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Macao, says Mr Olsen