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Nov 27, 2020 (newstodate): Even in times of coronavirus, good news are still around - with Norway's exports of king crabs as one example.
-Overall, the situation for seafood exports is quite good and while markets are turbulent, Norway's seafood exporters are doing quite well, says Bjorn Ronald Olsen, Cape Fish CEO.
-For our commodity, the king crabs, demand is high in the market, but of course logistics pose a challenge as cargo uplift is limited as airlines close down routes and decrease frequencies.
-Still, we are used to turbulence and challenges and are quite flexible in shifting the balance between exports of live crabs and production of finished products that takes the crab meat to a higher level in the value chain and creates more local jobs as well.
-The exports of finished goods can then be transported by sea to the market, outweighing the disadvantages from lack of air cargo capacity and securing a steady production and employment in Norway. However, our core product will remain the export of live king crabs to Asian markets.
-Otherwise, our preferred solution is trucking the king crabs to Helsinki Airport for uplift by Finnair that has been a loyal and steady partner for us throughout the years. Both Finnair Cargo and Helsinki Airport are highly professional in handling of seafood exports and most valuable providers for us, says Mr Olsen.
The quotas for fishing king crabs have varied from some 1,400 tonnes in 2018 to only 8-900 tonnes in 2020, but expectations are that the quota will be raised again in 2021 allowing Cape Fish to return to more normal conditions, also helped by the introduction of efficient Covid-19 vaccine programs that will open up the markets and increase air cargo uplift capacity again.