This is not an exhaustive list of the ins and outs of Norwegian seafood exports to China but these numbers show some of the more notable shifts seen across the market in 2025, which saw an overall 31% year-on-year growth in value for Norwegian seafood exports. It is also important to note that, while some of the growth figures are impressive, this is a story dominated by salmon.
Norwegian seafood in China
Scale and diversity: 2025 market snapshotProportion of species going to China
52% of Norwegian redfish was exported to China
26% of Norwegian prawns went to China
24% of haddock went to the country
9% of total Norwegian mackerel went to the country
78% of Norwegian Greenland halibut went to China
A vast and diverse market
Getting your head around just what the Chinese market means can be a lot:
A population of some 1.4 billion people spread across a huge country but concentrated in cities and urban areas around the south east, China is diverse in culture and food preferences, though seafood – including river fish and species such as sea cucumber not common in the west – are a strong current running through most regions.
It can be helpful to think of the vast country in the same way you might think of an entire region of the world. From the outside, it might seem a unified group, but country by country and region by region, tastes, norms and cultures are notably different.
The same is true of someone from Shanghai versus someone from Chongqing; someone from a tier-one city versus tier two; someone from an urban metropolis versus a rural area.
Still, generalisations can be made: there is an openness and ease with which Chinese consumers try new foods, for example, which itself comes from an openness to learning that is ingrained into culture and tradition, opening the door for imported products that build on existing tastes for healthy seafood.