Stock fish export to Nigeria drop by $500m

Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) Director, Mr. Trond Kostveit, has said that importation of stock fish to Nigeria from Norway has dropped from $1billion by half since 2015.

The Director, Central and West Africa explained  at the stakeholders meeting organised for seafood importers by the Norwegian Seafood Council in Lagos  that his country had been exporting stock fish to Nigeria  market since 1890 (126 years).

The director added that Norway and Nigeria trade relations had spanned for over a century.

Kostveit stressed that the importation of stock fish from Norway to Nigeria in 2014 was volume at $1 billion but declined last year 2015 to half or less of the volume.

He added that the council had opened an office in Nigeria for importers interested stock fish market business.

According to him, “We are looking into more specify areas in the importation of fish in Nigeria. We are partnering with Department of Fisheries and seeking more corporations with Nigeria importers.

“The council is also working in the area that are highly completing potential , and looking at a long time view how to continue bringing fish to Nigeria people.”

In his message, the Director, Federal Department of Fisheries, Mr. Mohammed Muazu, represented by Deputy Director of Fisheries, Mrs. Adepegba Olabisi, noted that fish was  the most highly traded food commodity in the world.

He said that the seafood had traditionally been a very important component of the Nigeria diet nationwide.

Muazu explained: “Number of factors notably the relative low prices of fish compared to other sources of animal protein except pork, its recognised as being nutritionally superior to other meats, its relative storability when processed into dried and smoked products, and more recently as a consequence of its promotion as being able to mitigate platelet aggregation and various arteriosclerosis conditions in adults.

“It is common knowledge that there is a wide gap between the demand and supply of fish in Nigeria hence importation of fish, especially the mackerels, sardinella, hake, croakers and herrings have remained an increasing phenomenon as it is use to bridge the gap. The trade is conspicuously dominated is conservatively estimated at 0.7 million tons.”

He  explained that the first major frozen fish importation effort was around 1966 by Nigerian enterprises and much earlier the importation of salted and dried codfish from Scandinavian countries, notably Iceland and Norway, had commenced during the Second World War.

Muazu added that the recent trends and development in fish trade and marketing had prompted the need for a reassessment of investments opportunities, adding that it is heart-warming to note that effort that is being put in place by the Norwegian Seafood Council to demonstrate diverse culinary preparations of Norwegian seafood recipes to ultimately boost importation of seafood products from Norway.