Norway aims to cash in on growing Thai appetite for salmon

[rooster59]

Norway aims to cash in on growing Thai appetite for salmon

By Sirivish Toomgum
THE NATION

 

 

The Thai appetite for Norway's salmon has grown substantially, despite the economic slowdown, according to Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC).

 

 

Asbjørn Warvik Rørtveit, NSC director of Southeast Asia, said that salmon has a unique position in the Thai market due to its taste, appearance and usage, and is not easily substituted by other species or products in the main segments.

 

“Even though we’ve seen a decline in the Thai economy, salmon consumption is growing substantially. This shows that there is a strong demand among Thai consumers. We therefore expect growth in sales in the coming years,” Rørtveit said.

 

“The demand for salmon [in Thailand] has continued to rise in popularity because of Japanese restaurants [Bangkok has the highest concentration of Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, numbering some 2,000 outlets and growing] and ‘all you can eat’ buffet restaurants which often feature salmon sashimi, together with a growing trend in home consumption among mid- to high-end food services and retailers," he added.

 

Asbjørn Warvik Rørtveit, NSC director of Southeast Asia

 

The share of fresh Norwegian salmon in Thailand has grown significantly since 2019, as the demand in the Thai market has gradually shifted from frozen to fresh salmon.

 

An estimated 13,000 tonnes of fresh Norwegian salmon were consumed in the Thai market last year.

 

The trend is due to more demand for high quality raw salmon among Japanese restaurants. In 2019, fresh Norwegian salmon had a 98 per cent market share in Thailand, while Norwegian frozen salmon had 14 per cent share in Thailand, he added.

 

In total, Norway exported seafood to Thailand valued at Bt5.2 billion in 2019, where salmon and fjord trout accounted for 87 per cent of this value. Norway’s seafood exports to Thailand in 2019 expanded 33 per cent from 2018.

 

“We believe that Thailand and Southeast Asia will become an even more important market for Norwegian salmon and fjord trout, and we expect that the volume will increase also in 2020,” he added.

 

The NSC will continue to boost the demand for salmon in Thailand by stepping up awareness for Norwegian salmon as best fit for raw consumption, he said.

 

This will be achieved through the education of foodservice, importers and modern retails about Norwegian salmon, its origin, benefits, food safety, handling, and training through marketing, PR and digital activities together with local stakeholders on behalf of Norwegian exporters for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business targets in Thailand.

 

“We also aim to develop the fjord trout market [in Thailand] in the upcoming year. As we have introduced our premium fjord trout late last year to the media and the public, we want to educate Thai people about the proper way to cook and how to differentiate them from Norwegian salmon," Rørtveit said.

 

Menu: Fried fjord trout on an apple and celery relish with glazed romaine lettuce

 

 

 

Medium Norwegian fjord trout is the only trout to live its life in fjords. It is particularly popular with creative cooks. This recipe pan fries the trout to keep it moist and tasty!

 

Ingredients: (For 4 persons with maximum 40-minute cooking time using 4 fjord trout fillets)

 

Number of servings

 

4 x Norwegian fjord trout fillet

30 ml olive oil salt

1 x apple

1 x stick of celery

40 ml apple juice

1 x lime salt cayenne pepper

0.5 tsp sugar, brown

20 g butter

30 ml olive oil wasabi

1 x head of romaine lettuce

30 g butter

30 ml olive oil

20 ml apple juice

 

Procedure

 

1. Heat the oil in a pan. Place the fjord trout into the hot oil with the skin side down, lightly press on it and sear. Reduce the heat and continue to fry on the skin side. Salt both sides before serving.

 

2. Dice the apple into 0.5 x 0.5 cm cubes. Use a potato peeler to peel some long strips from the green part of the celery. Place the strips and the green part of the celery in iced water. Finely dice the remaining celery. Melt the brown sugar in a saucepan, deglaze with the apple juice and then add the olive oil. Add the diced apple and diced celery, and lightly salt. Allow this mixture to boil away briefly. Stir in the wasabi paste (to taste). Stir the butter into the mixture while still hot, add the juice and zest of the lime, then season with pepper.

 

3. Wash the lettuce, quarter it lengthways and pat dry. Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan. Add the lettuce to the pan, deglaze with apple juice and then stew it in the juice. Season with salt.

 

4. Arrange the romaine lettuce and place the fjord trout on top. Spoon the apple and celery relish onto the plate. Finish with some strips of celery and the green part of the celery. The number of ingredients has been changed.

 

Please remember: Be careful when adding salt and seasoning during cooking – you can always add more at the end if you need to.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/Food/30380762?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=internal_referral

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-19

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[ezzra]

At 1500 baht a kilo in a supermarket and double it in a Japanese restaurant, no thanks... this 'appetite' must be reserved to those who can afford the hefty cost.. 

[Cat Boy]

Sushi uses very little salmon, so the cost isn't really that high, and its delicious. Yes, as ezzra noted, the cost in the supermarket and upscale restaurants makes it uninviting. I have seen a number of video documentaries recently about the chemicals used in fish farming there and the residue which comes through to the consumer. A recent search, though, seems to rebuff those claims. So I'm not sure that there is any validity to the earlier warnings. Its such an important export for the Norwegians

that I can't imagine that they would not correct whatever earlier claims that brought up.

[Yinn]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

At 1500 baht a kilo in a supermarket and double it in a Japanese restaurant, no thanks... this 'appetite' must be reserved to those who can afford the hefty cost.. 

I buy this one Tesco. (I agree free is better for sashimi, but If cook it, it taste the same).

 

59 baht for 120 gram pack. 

I like it. Think that salmon have more flavor when cook it. (I like sashimi also)

 

 

[CGW]

I will not buy Norwegian salmon, look at the disgusting conditions it is bred in, look at where the money behind this industry comes from and make your own choice - carefully!

[nervona81732]

Norwegian farmed salmon is one of the most toxic around. Their flesh is pink because dye has been introduced to the feed. The ponds are over crowed and disease is prevalent in the enclosures so anti biotics are introduce. That's what your eating. No thanks , I pay the price for WILD CAUGHT.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Norway aims to cash in on growing Thai appetite for salmon

Maybe Thais should "youtube" the video on Norwegian salmon before buying into that.

It's supposed to be the most heavily polluted salmon fishery around in the world!

[stouricks]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

fresh Norwegian salmon had a 98 per cent market share in Thailand, while Norwegian frozen salmon had 14 per cent share in Thailand

= 112 % market share??????

[Krataiboy]

9 minutes ago, CGW said:

I will not buy Norwegian salmon, look at the disgusting conditions it is bred in, look at where the money behind this industry comes from and make your own choice - carefully!

I'm sure a government committed to bringing happiness to the people would not allow Norwegian salmon into the country if they felt it might harm their citizens.

[CanuckThai]

Interesting that Canadian Salmon is almost unheard of here.  The salmon (wild and farmed) industry in Canada is fairly robust.  They almost give canned salmon away in grocery stores ($2-4 per can)

[fxe1200]

90 % of all Canadian salmon farming are owned by three Norwegian companies.  I would never ever eat it it after informing myself about the farmed salmon.

 

[chilli42]

29 minutes ago, CanuckThai said:

Interesting that Canadian Salmon is almost unheard of here.  The salmon (wild and farmed) industry in Canada is fairly robust.  They almost give canned salmon away in grocery stores ($2-4 per can)

It’s the Norwegians that run most of the fish farms on the Canadian west coast.  It’s beginning to destroy the indigenous salmon.  

[George Aylesham]

In Singapore there are even ATMs selling Norwegian salmon in the main shopping areas.

[Number 6]

Wife loves it. I tolerate it.

 

Farmed salmon - pigs of the sea.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, nervona81732 said:

Norwegian farmed salmon is one of the most toxic around. Their flesh is pink because dye has been introduced to the feed. The ponds are over crowed and disease is prevalent in the enclosures so anti biotics are introduce. That's what your eating. No thanks , I pay the price for WILD CAUGHT.

And where do you find wild caught salmon in Thailand? It is easy to find in the US. But here? I have looked everywhere for it. 99.9% of the salmon available in Thailand is farmed. Hopefully not from Chile, which is the most toxic salmon in the world. All farmed salmon is toxic. It is just a matter of degree. 

[Tagged]

5 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Hopefully not from Chile, which is the most toxic salmon in the world. All farmed salmon is toxic. It is just a matter of degree. 

Just trade politics, they are all the same <deleted>! Sea chickens as we call it, f fat industrial farming products. 

 

However they claim Norway to be the cleanest, I doubt it, 

 

when you have tasted fresh wild salmon once in your life, you will never forget it, or fresh any cold water fish for that sake, and fish will never be the same again. 

[spidermike007]

7 minutes ago, Tagged said:

Just trade politics, they are all the same <deleted>! Sea chickens as we call it, f fat industrial farming products. 

 

However they claim Norway to be the cleanest, I doubt it, 

 

when you have tasted fresh wild salmon once in your life, you will never forget it, or fresh any cold water fish for that sake, and fish will never be the same again. 

I completely agree. When dining in a decent restaurant in the US, I ask the waiter or waitress do you have any wild fish on the menu? Often they go out of their way to source some, and you are right, the taste is completely different. Wild salmon tastes nothing like farmed salmon. Nearly all of the salmon available here in Thailand is very bland in taste. It is nearly all from very toxic farms.

[ChaiyaTH]

2 hours ago, nervona81732 said:

Norwegian farmed salmon is one of the most toxic around. Their flesh is pink because dye has been introduced to the feed. The ponds are over crowed and disease is prevalent in the enclosures so anti biotics are introduce. That's what your eating. No thanks , I pay the price for WILD CAUGHT.

Seen a documentary on this, horrible. Told my wife to stop eating it. In Netherlands they recently spoke out about this too, not enough fish from the north sea on the menu's in restaurant but a lot of farmed salmon etc. 

The most toxic turned out to be inside the food pellets they give those farmed salmons.
3-5x worse than general worries about pesticides on vegetables and such.
BTW not only Norway doing this but Vietnam too. I guess most farmed fish on the world even.
 

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by ChaiyaTH

[Flyfish]

As a former wild salmon fisherman,I am so heartened and very impressed by the level of informed comment regarding this toxic farmed salmon industry.

wild Atlantic salmon stocks are at dangerously low levels and many informed organisations believe that this is almost entirely due to Industrial scale farming.

Eating this stuff can seriously damage your health....and will surely make wild Atlantic salmon extinct within 25years.

[justin case]

come on thailand , there must be a GENIOUS to make cheap pieces of unsaleable thai fish, and some color, taste and boooooom .... thai farmed salmon created at premium price, everybody happy

[ratcatcher]

3 hours ago, nervona81732 said:

Their flesh is pink because dye has been introduced to the feed.

All salmon flesh is of a pinkish color, sockeye, Chinook,  pink, Atlantic etc. Wild salmon is better than farmed salmon. Pacific salmon is regarded as superior to Atlantic salmon. 

Farmed salmon is generally considered unhealthy by comparison to wild caught salmon.

https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/chile-industrial-salmon-farms-changing-seas-191110182531076.html

Edited January 19, 2020 by ratcatcher

[IAMHERE]

WOW, I eat a few ounces every three weeks or so. What health concerns should I have now? Is it too late for me? 

[varun]

The only salmon worth having is wild salmon - much more expensive than farmed salmon.

[Tagged]

16 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

WOW, I eat a few ounces every three weeks or so. What health concerns should I have now? Is it too late for me? 

As much concern as you eat any other farmed meat! So basicaly you most people are doomed. 
 

The resoult we will see how old farmed meet and fish generation Will be compare to those previous industrial farmed meat and fish!

 

living age have been on rise in most contries for a couple of generations now, but lately fall back in Us! 
 

To early to make conclusions anyway why, if its a lasting problem, more suicides, drug, depression, and the reasons.
 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-life-expectancy-drops-third-year-row-reflecting-rising-drug-overdose-suicide-rates-180970942/

[tifino]

1 hour ago, Flyfish said:

As a former wild salmon fisherman,I am so heartened and very impressed by the level of informed comment regarding this toxic farmed salmon industry.

wild Atlantic salmon stocks are at dangerously low levels and many informed organisations believe that this is almost entirely due to Industrial scale farming.

Eating this stuff can seriously damage your health....and will surely make wild Atlantic salmon extinct within 25years.

... and once the Atlantic source is depleted;

all the Thais think left are the toxic Norwegian stuff,

and the Radio Active (thanks Fukashima) Pacific market... 

 

[xylophone]

25 minutes ago, tifino said:

... and once the Atlantic source is depleted;

all the Thais think left are the toxic Norwegian stuff,

and the Radio Active (thanks Fukashima) Pacific market... 

 

Then you can try delicious New Zealand salmon trout, caught on the line in one of New Zealand's fabulous lakes.

 

I have done that many times and caught so many of them, that I became "trouted-out" on a few day's excursion out on the boat of a friend of mine. Couldn't really tell the difference between salmon and trout when it was cooked gently in silver foil with a little bit of butter and white wine!

 

It's a wonder why the New Zealand fishing industry hasn't tried to attract more keen fisherman (or perhaps they do and I don't know about it) or indeed tried to export it?

[ratcatcher]

1 hour ago, IAMHERE said:

WOW, I eat a few ounces every three weeks or so. What health concerns should I have now? Is it too late for me? 

Yes, we're all going to die sooner or later so put another salmon steak on the barbie.

[tifino]

1 minute ago, xylophone said:

Then you can try delicious New Zealand salmon trout, caught on the line in one of New Zealand's fabulous lakes.

 

I have done that many times and caught so many of them, that I became "trouted-out" on a few day's excursion out on the boat of a friend of mine. Couldn't really tell the difference between salmon and trout when it was cooked gently in silver foil with a little bit of butter and white wine!

 

It's a wonder why the New Zealand fishing industry hasn't tried to attract more keen fisherman (or perhaps they do and I don't know about it) or indeed tried to export it?

they have comparative Fjoords too, to give the Norges a run for their money...

  and lucky they are a very long way from Japan

[ratcatcher]

7 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Then you can try delicious New Zealand salmon trout, caught on the line in one of New Zealand's fabulous lakes.

 

I have done that many times and caught so many of them, that I became "trouted-out" on a few day's excursion out on the boat of a friend of mine. Couldn't really tell the difference between salmon and trout when it was cooked gently in silver foil with a little bit of butter and white wine!

 

It's a wonder why the New Zealand fishing industry hasn't tried to attract more keen fisherman (or perhaps they do and I don't know about it) or indeed tried to export it?

New Zealand salmon trout, caught on the line in one of New Zealand's fabulous lakes.

 

New Zealand has no native salmon or trout and all the salmonids were originally imported as ova. Although there is a very significant recreational trout fishery in New Zealand often sustained by hatchery output, farming of trout in New Zealand is illegal. Attempts have been made to farm the sockeye and Atlantic species in New Zealand but for various reasons these were unsuccessful such that only Chinook is now farmed.

http://www.salmon.org.nz/new-zealand-salmon-farming/history/

 

As an off topic comment, a few years ago, I was able to buy frozen farmed rainbow trout from the Royal Project,usually found in large malls, wasn't too bad and not too expensive.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by ratcatcher

[fxe1200]

1 hour ago, IAMHERE said:

WOW, I eat a few ounces every three weeks or so. What health concerns should I have now? Is it too late for me? 

As one can clearly see in your posting, the consumption of farmed salmon shows some mental disorders already.