MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – Norway will be forced to find new markets in the European Union for its 300,000 tons of seafood that was earmarked for Russia after Moscow banned the import of food products in response to Western sanctions, the director of the Norwegian Seafood Council in Russia told RIA Novosti on Friday.
“This is a challenging situation for Norwegian seafood exporters. However, the Norwegian seafood industry has long experience of tackling trade barriers in Russia, and are thus prepared for such situations,” Ingrid Skarstein said.
“Because seafood trade is global, the products that normally are being exported to Russia may be traded in other markets such as the EU,” she added.
Skarstein said that Russia was one of the most important importers of Norwegian seafood in the beginning of the 2000s, and in 2013 Norway exported 295,000 tons of seafood to Russia, or more than $1 billion in trade.
“The value of this export constituted NOK 6,5 billion, compared to NOK 5,9 billion in 2012. So far this year, Norway has exported 128 thousand tons of seafood worth NOK 3,2 billion to Russia,” the council director noted.
Russia’s foods embargo has deprived Norwegian salmon and trout producers of their biggest market, and this amid a year of record high fish prices.
“In 2013, 134 trucks with fresh salmon and Fjord Trout was on average exported to Russia each week,” the director of the Norwegian Seafood Council in Russia told RIA Novosti.
In 2014, Russia became Norway’s second biggest fish buyer after Poland.
On Thursday, Russia imposed a one-year ban on the imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, seafood, milk, dairy products, as well as fruits and vegetables from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, and Norway.
At the height of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russian officials, business people and companies and pressed for the allies in the West to follow its lead. The European Union, Canada, and Australia soon caved in to the US sanctions push and drew up their own blacklists.
The head of France’s largest farmers' association told a local TV channel yesterday that Russia’s imports embargo could trigger a crisis in the European market as “products that are no longer exported outside [the EU] will rebound on European countries.”
Moscow said it was ready to review the terms of its import restrictions if Western partners show commitment to dialogue.
