Potential for added value on the coast of Norway

Norway in the future…

Some day in the future, in not too long, the oil adventure of Norway will be history. The platforms will stop pumping up money to the welfare state, and Norway will need new industries. New industries that creates jobs and that sends money to the pocket…

It takes time to make new main sources of income up and running, and that is why Norway should start looking around for alternative activities already. A possible new source of income is sea farming, in many ways both a new and an old industry for the Norwegians. Old in the sense of it being an activity that kept big parts of the population alive through history. New in the sense that it for many years has for many years been considered a low status profession to do sea farming. It is not until the latest years, with the great export of salmon, that sea farming is again associated with money and status.

The politicians decided in the white paper St.meld.39 (1998-1999), Forskning ved et tidsskille, that the national focus of research should be on areas where Norway has distinct qualifications for success. There was appointed four such areas, whereas marine research was one of these areas. Within sea farming Norway has several obvious and natural advantages, and it is pointed out that this is one of the possibilities for the future [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

Norway has several natural advantages regarding sea farming. The coastal line of Norway is very long, and by the very fact of the economical zone being sat to 2000 km, this represents an enormous area in which one could do sea farming. The coast is suitably protected with many islands and fjords, and there is a large entry of nutrient-rich sea water. Large parts of the coast are not polluted, and there are especially favourable conditions northwards from Møre og Romsdal. The cold water keeps poisonous algae away, and it contributes to raise the quality of the sea food [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

There is such a high amount of money in sea farming that the salmon breeding in the areas around Hitra and Frøya now stands for almost 40 % of the added value of all of Trøndelag [Knut Sundet]. However, sea farming in Trøndelag also invites to many other possibilities besides salmon breeding. It has been said that a well worked out Norwegian aquaculture has an equally big potential in added value as the oil industry [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

It all comes down to seeing the potential that sea farming in Norway represents. Lee Chul-ho, better known as the noodle king Mr. Lee, has just announced that he wishes to start a king snail factory on the island of Frøya. According to him there is swarming with king snails along the coast of Trøndelag, and he wants to sell these to Japan, where the snails are a highly sought after delicacy [NRK, 31.03.05]. In Norway, the king snails have a low status, and as a consequence, its potential as an income has not been seen. The sea urchin has suffered under the same conditions, but there are now several enthusiasts that believes in the sea urchin as a sellable sea food product, and that has tried to make an industry out of it.

Åfjord municipality has tried to become the mussel municipality number one in Norway, the mainly blue mussels. In the early 90s they were really big in this kind of breeding, but due to tragic circumstances and a collapse in the mussel market, they had a major set back. They are now on the way back, heading for new altitudes. The breeding conditions in the area are optimal and this is an advantage the municipality should take advantage of.

It is important for the distinctive characteristics of Norway that the scattered population is kept, also along the coast.

For the outskirts such as Åfjord, it is of great significance that there are a sufficient amount of jobs, both to prevent people moving out, and to stand out as an attractive place to live that invites for people to move to. Jobs require a form of added value and for municipalities along the coast, different forms of sea farming is such a valuable possibilities.

Outskirts can experience success by creating a strong environment for added value. This will to a certain amount, lead the focus from urban areas to the relevant area. According to the white paper St.meld. nr.34 (2000-2001), Om distrikts- og regionalpolitikken, a successful environment for added value is characterized by three main factors;

• There are relatively many companies within certain industries inside limited geographical areas. This leads to a strong local competence.
• The companies are forming local networks and are collaborating on innovation, both horizontally and vertically in the value chain.
• There are contact and dialog with regional knowledge organisations.
  

If the three factors of success are used as a point of departure, we can see what Åfjord did wrong in the 90s and what they should do now. Early in the nineties there was given 23 licences to do mussel breeding, and all of these were divided on many small companies. As the interest spread out in the municipality, one started to demand that the companies delivered their mussels to the already established wrapping factory. This led to tendencies of collaboration and networks. There was however no contact with regional knowledge organisations [Knut Sundet].

There are great expectations of the niche production of rather luxurious sea food will be the future of the Norwegian aquaculture. There will always be variations in the market and it is important with a flexible production as for instance to be able to use the same factory for several kinds of sea food [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk]. In Åfjords case, it will be strategically smart to go for production and eventually refinement of multiple types of sea food. They have already tried the breeding of mussels, and there have earlier been attempts of diving for sea urchins for exporting to Japan. The local environments are already big in salmon breeding, and Åfjord should rather try to complement them than to compete against them. This they can do my producing several types of mussels, sea urchins, different snails and other types of sea food. To accomplish even more added value, they should further on try to refine some of these products [Strategi for blåskjellnæringen for sjømatklynge nord]. This will contribute to create interesting job possibilities.

It is said of the future that quality will be a key word. There will be more and more demands of documentation of high quality, and as a follow up on this there will probably come some rules of certification for sea food. An eco-label is such a certificate. The eco-labeled sea food means that the food is given a life-cycle assessment that says something about the environmental friendliness of the product from raw material to waste management. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent eco-label that guaranties that the sea food is from a viable sea farm [WWF ”sjømat med god samvittighet”]. Eco-labelled sea food is as of today not to find in Norway, but there is a growing demand of this in Europe. Ac eco-label on the sea food would function as a quality stamp.

Translated article

source unknown

Sources:

Arbeidsgruppen for havbruk, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab og Norges Tekniske Vitenskapsakademi, Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk, 1999

Dagbladet, http://www.dagbladet.no/pds/1999/03/30/161797.html

Knut Sundet, leder av Åfjord Næringsforening

NRK P3, nyhetssending 31.03.05

Stiftelsen Norsk Skjellforum, Strategi for blåskjellnæringen for sjømatklynge nord

St.meld. nr. 34 (2000-2001), Om distrikts- og regionalpolitikken

St.meld.39 (1998-1999), Forskning ved et tidsskille

WWF-Norge, Sjømat med god samvittighet En oppsummering av miljømerker og miljø-styringssystemer for fiskerier og havbruksprodukter, 2002

[http://www.dagbladet.no/pds/1999/03/30/161797.html

Mr. Lee sees potential in "alternative" Norwegian sea food.

Mr.Lee sells "non-food" to Koreans
Text: Christian Thorkildsen, Ida Aamodt-Hansen, Aftenposten
Photo: Svein Erik Furulund
Published: 06.08.08 21:04, Updated: 07.08.08 14:51

With a Korean TV-team following him, the "Noodle king" Mr. Lee is working on selling Norwegian seagull-food to the Korean people.
- The water temperature in the Tromsø-area is very suitable, so we will grow a lot of sea weed and sea tangle in Norway. And sea cucumber, says Chui Hoi Lee.

- Norwegians throw away too much good sea food. Two thirds of all the Norwegian fish being fished is thrown out again. I want to try to send that fish to the people in the East, because we love that kind of food! King snails, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, crabs and scampi that Norwegians don't appreciate too much - is very much appreciated in the East, says Chul Hol Lee, better known in Norway as Mr. Lee.

- The fishermen can get their money back, because I have lots of buyers "down there", he adds.

He has a clear recommendation for the Norwegian Seafood business:
- They can forget about the EU. Two thirds of the world's population lives in the East, so it's a much bigger market there, says Lee.

INSPIRES
A team from the South Korean TV-channel MBC follows Lee closely these days, all over Norway.

- They are going to make a documentary on me, on my stay in Norway, the 50 years I have been here, what I have learned and so on. They have followed me to the museum, library and bookshop to see what has been written about me. It's tiresome. But also fun that people appreciate what I have done until now, says Lee.

TV host Grace Choi from MBC says Lee inspires Koreans in may ways.
- When he came here he had nothing. He didn't speak Norwegian, not even English. But look at him now. It's amazing! she says.

Sea Urchin - another future source of income?

Once upon a time there was a king crab...

The king crabs - a blessing?

The king crab was introduced to the Barents Sea by Russian scientists in the 1960s. The crabs are spread into large areas of both the Russian and Norwegian waters and are now considered to be a permanent habitant of the Barents Sea. As an omnivore with few natural enemies it was for many years considered a great threat to the Barents way of life – both for man and under water species. But the king crab is also a sought-after delicacy that could bring hope for the future of many small villages in the high north.

The king crabs were originally found in the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. In 1961, the Russian marine biologist Jurij I. Orlov succeeded in bringing live female crabs full of spawn, from the Japan Sea to Murmansk. Orlov made 30 trips like this over a period of 8 years, from 1961 to 1969, in which he put out 2 000 female crabs, 1 000 male crabs and 10 000 crab brood. And also 1, 5 million crab larvae. The last time a relocation of crabs like this was made, was in 1977 – 78 where they put out 1200 adult king crabs in the Kola fjord. These crabs became with that the ancestors of the king crabs we see today in the Barents Sea.

Ever since 1932 the Soviet Union had been trying to relocate the king crabs. The project was a part of many of which the goal was to give more food to the people – a prestige project of Stalin. Orlov gained fame and recognition in Soviet for his work, and got among others the order “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

In the 40 years from the 1960s to 2000, the king crab had spread westward along all of the coast of Finnmark, where it is now a common sight. Some singletons have been spotted as far as in the Lofoten Islands, but this is likely to be individuals who got “a hand” on the way. Eastwards, the crabs are now found along the entire coast of Kola, into the White Sea and up north to Gåsbanken. On the Norwegian side it has also been seen far offshore; in 2003 it was found 100 nautical miles north of the North Cape. The previous registration was 12 nautical miles north of North Cape. This means that the king crab had moved a great distance in short time. King crab larvae lives 2-3 months in free water and can be transported over long distances with the ocean currents, and it is not unreasonable to assume that the king crabs can spread all the way up to Svalbard in a long term perspective. It is unknown how far west and south it will spread along the Norwegian coast, but Russian scientists believes that the crab has reached its most easterly border in the Barents Sea. Westwards on the other hand, the analysis suggests that the crabs will expand all the way to Gibraltar.

Until 2002, commercial red king crab fishery was prohibited in the Barents Sea. The reason of this was that during the negotiations on the grey zone in the late 1970s, Norway accepted the introduction of a total prohibition against this kind of fishery. This was after the request of the Soviet authorities who wanted the population to grow up big and viable. Now, the king crabs can be caught on commercial proposes east of 26° Ø and the quotas are regularly going up.

The production of king crabs is a prosperous industry in the Barents region, and more and more ancient fishing villages are expanding their production facilities so that they are able to include this kind of production. The only downside is that the production period is very short and hectic – only 6 weeks from September to mid- October. The Norwegian department of Fishery writes in a rapport on the king crab, that there is a significant potential for industrial and commercial development of the production of king crabs and that this would contribute to strengthen the fisheries in the gain ground of the crabs. They also encourage research and development on the area to insecure added values.

Japan and USA are the biggest markets for king crab and they are base don traditional products, sales outlets and fixed procedures for price stipulation. The experiences made in the period of research catch, indicates that the Norwegian king crab can reach new markets and offer both new and traditional products for “attractive prices.” In 2002, when catching of king crabs became regulated in Norway, they also made a tourist quota. This received a lot of attention, and is a growing business in Finnmark; Varanger Opplevelser calls the king crab catching a “very salable and sexy product – all year around.“

In the small coastal village of Bugøynes in Finnmark, Norway, we can find one of the suppliers of the king crabs. Bugøynes is located close to the Varangerfjord in the Varanger Peninsula – the key region for Red King Crab of Norway, and is today a leading king crab manufacturer in Norway. From these you can get everything from a crabs shoulder to an entire crab precooked. There are also similar production companies in Kjøllefjord and Berlevåg further west in Finnmark. These companies are exporting crab to markets in Europe, Asia and the USA, but their high season is in December when it’s the “Christmas sales” to Japan. So as he said, Jurij I. Orlov, the king crabs might just become a real blessing for the people of the Norwegian coast.

Sources:

Fiskeri- og Havbruksnæringens landforening

Havforskningsinstituttet

Fiskeri- og kystdepartementet

Bugøynes Kongekrabbe AS