Who is winning the “cod war” in France?

June 05, 2018

Icelandic cod has been selling well in France this year. In the first 4 months imports from Iceland total 5.850t compared with 3.492t in the same period last year. That is an increase well north of 50%. More than half of all cod from Iceland is fresh portions or 3.399t in this period compared to 1.670t last year, an increase of 103%. The average price for this product category was 8.93 EUR/kg up by nearly 3% from last year. The second biggest volume is fresh fillets with 671t this year compared to 555t last year, up by 21%. The average price of fresh fillets was 8.32 EUR/kg up by 8,4% from last year.

Exports of fresh portions from Iceland to France

At the same time the direct sales of cod from Norway has declined from 2.195t last year to 2.025t. Fresh fillets (and portions) from Norway are down 47% between the years. This year they are 197t compared to 373t last year. The price is nearly the same between years at 8.53 EUR/kg up by 0,2% this year. Nearly half of the direct cod exports from Norway to France is fresh whole at 972t this year compared to 1.158t last year, a 16% decline. The average price is up by 3,2% this year at 3.43 EUR/kg.

Exports of fresh whole from Norway to France

When looking at the direct exports from Norway to France it is the 48% increase in fresh Skrei™ exports from 233t for the first 4 months in 2017 to 344t for the same period 2018 that is noticeable while average prices have fallen by nearly 3%.

Exports of fresh Skrei™ from Norway to France

When comparing only the direct exports from Iceland and Norway it is clear that Iceland is leading in both volumes and prices per kg. Still that doesn’t tell the whole story as the import volumes of fresh fillets (and portions) to France for Denmark are up by more than 4% to 1615t for the first two months of 2018 and when considering that most of the volumes through Denmark are of Norwegian origin the results become somewhat murkier.

Imports of fresh fillets from Denmark to France

For more on the latest prices and volumes to France keep visiting seadatacenter.com. Please contact us at info@seadatacenter.com for more information.