The Japan Times WORLD EYE REPORTS NORWAY
©THE JAPAN TIMES	Thursday, November 15, 2001

From Norway's waters to the world's kitchens With Norway's long tradition of fishing and living by and from the sea it is no surprise that its fisheries industry is one of the most advanced and developed in the world. Salmon, halibut, cod, mackerel and herring are but a few species that have been pulled from the cold clear waters of Norway's deep fjords and brought into the international market place for many years. Though managed in an extremely conservative way, however, the traditional wild catch industry has been forced to scale back because of global over fishing which have seriously damaged fish stocks. Thus in the early 1970's a new concept was born which would circumvent this problem and in the process create one of the most sustainable and renewable of resources, while at the same time becoming the most important component of the large Norwegian fishing industry: fish farming.

Ingvald Loyning believes his company's promotion of renewable fishing is the inevitable wave of the future.

The total export of fish products from Norway in 2000 was over $3.75 billion, making it the second largest export item from Norway behind oil and gas. Fish farming, which focuses at the moment on Atlantic salmon and Rainbow trout (also known as Salmon Trout), accounted for over 40 percent of that total from Norwegian fisheries. Considering this industry was only conceptually started in 1970, it is an amazing record of growth.

The market leader, both within Norway as well as globally, is Bergen-based Marine Harvest, which is a core business unit of the Dutch-based agro/aqua group Nutreco Holding NV. The industry pioneer has established itself as a the biggest producer, processor and distributor of whole fish and value-added processed products in the Atlantic, Coho and King Salmon segment in the world with a 16 percent market share.

With fish farms in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Chile and Norway, Marine Harvest has continuous operations all year round. It supplies the biggest markets - particularly the EU, Japan and the US - and benefits from having complete control and ownership of every stage of the value chain: from the freshwater farm to marine farm, harvesting and processing stations to sales and logistics.

Ownership of production distinguishes Marine Harvest from many of the companies operating in the fish sector. Ingvald Loyning, President of Marine Harvest, stresses the company's leading edge. "We are a completely integrated company. In addition to owning the farming, we have a different strategic approach to the market place," he says.

Explaining the key advantages of Marine Harvest, Loynig says, "Fish farming and marketing are two main competencies required. However, I must emphasize the importance of logistical operations to us as well. We are such an operation that we have customers all over the world, and also at the same time, like in Norway where you have a long coastline, we have operations all the way from the north to the south."

"To combine all these things towards the market place in a cost efficient way is one of our key competencies," he adds.

From its fish farms in the cold pristine waters off the Norwegian coast, Marine Harvest supplies Japanese customers all year round. "To us Japan is a very important market. We are first of all into Atlantic salmon, and we believe that in the future the market will grow to be much larger than it is at its present size," Loyning comments.

"We supply a lot more than simply frozen fish. We do value added products here such as sashimi fillets, which is a recent development. Compared to other European markets, Japan is a more complicated and distant market. Consequently it takes time to really build those structures where we have those relations were can really deliver those kinds of products," he adds.

With four decades of experience in Japan, Marine Harvest has learned a lot about the market. It can also draw upon experience from its sister companies that produce fish feed - Skretting in Norway, Trouw in Europe and Chile, and Moore-Clark in North America. These Nutreco subsidiaries have gained a leading supplier of salmon feed to the aquaculture industry. They have also established deep roots in Japan.

From the experience, Loyning singles out a key to survive in the Japanese market: trust. "When we are delivering our salmon and other products, relations are important because it is a matter of trust related to the product. We have to make the product the right quality for the market. Of course our customers cannot control every fish so it's a strong natural trust, and I think all those kinds of things help to improve the trust in the relation with Japan in general."

Demand for fish world-wide continues to grow. Thirty years ago, fish was traded regionally and there was little global coordination in the market. Today, a major player needs operations in every corner of the globe and must respond to demand as soon as it arises. As a healthy, renewable and delicious product, demand is expected to continue growing for the coming decades.

As a leader in salmon farming, Marine Harvest has acquired highly specialized knowledge, which it is applying to other species once considered impossible to farm, such as cod and halibut.

For Loyning and the people at Marine Harvest, the future looks bright. Besides supplying the world with delicious and healthy products, Marine Harvest and others in its industry help the world feed itself with the development of this renewable resource as well as help their customers improve their bottom lines.