Sandberg sets sights on Japan
NORWAY’S fisheries minister Per Sandberg was due to visit Tokyo in late June with mackerel and salmon topping the agenda.
Japan is currently Norway’s most important seafood market in Asia. In 2016, salmon, trout, mackerel and other seafood worth NOK 4.4 billion was exported there.
While in Japan he was due to meet representatives of both the Norwegian and Japanese seafood industries, along with conducting political talks to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Sandberg said the visit is based on three decades of seafood cooperation with Japan. Thirty years ago it was unthinkable for the Japanese to eat raw salmon, even in sushi, but then a Norwegian delegation travelled to Asia in 1985. Now the Norwegian salmon is a part of Japanese sushi culture.