Norway salmon industry faces quality issues and invasive species

Norway’s salmon industry is facing dual challenges regarding fish quality and invasive species. The sector is grappling with a rise in “production fish” (prodfisk), a term for lower-quality salmon showing signs of injury or deformity. According to Norway's Food Safety Authority, Mattilsynet, the proportion of production fish rose from 5% in 2018 to 15% in 2023, with some recent weeks seeing levels exceed 36%. Norwegian law prohibits the export of whole damaged salmon, requiring them to be processed domestically first. The European Union has expressed support for seafood processors seeking to change how this category is traded.

Simultaneously, Norway is managing an influx of pink salmon, an invasive species originally introduced to the Kola Peninsula by the Soviet Union starting in 1956. In 2023, Norway utilized traps in over 50 rivers to remove approximately 250,000 pink salmon adults before they could spawn. While the species is a resource in Russia, it is considered invasive in Norway, where populations fluctuate significantly in odd-numbered years and threaten native Atlantic salmon.