Norway Crashes Okporoko Fish Price For Nigeria Over Poor Sales

Despite reduction in the price of fish for Nigeria by Norway, importers have reduced shipments of various species to the seaports because of the high exchange rate of naira to dollar and backlogs of unsold stocks in cold rooms.
Nigeria is currently battling to meet 2.2 million tonnes deficit estimated at $1.2 billion needed by the consumers, leading to high price in local market.
Between September 2024 and October 8, no vessel ferried fish to Lagos Port due to economic hardship confronting consumers.
In 2023, data by the World Bank revealed that the Nigerian ports took delivery of 226, 263 tonnes (22.6 million kilogrammes) of chilled fish valued at $32 million as against the 2.2 million tonnes annual imports from Norway, Ireland, Faeroe Islands, Argentina and Chile.
However, worried by the lull in the exports, Norway forced down the price of the seafood in July 2024 to woo Nigerian importers by slashing the price of stock fish to Nigerian market.
Investigation revealed that in July 2024, only 89 tonnes were sold to Nigeria, making it to be the greatest growth in the value of exports to Nigeria since the beginning of the year, leading to export value of $564,192 (NOK6 million), or 266 per cent, compared with the same month last year as export volume to Nigeria same month last year.
According to an analyst at the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), Eivind Hestvik Brækkan, “Stockfish of saithe, tusk and cod were all exported to Nigeria in July.
The dried fish that goes to this market achieves a much lower price than that which goes to Italy. Despite the increase in July, the market situation in Nigeria remains challenging. A weak exchange rate for the Nigerian naira makes importing goods more expensive.”
Findings from Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s shipping position indicated that no vessel berthed with fish at Lagos Ports since September till October 8, 2024.
However, the shipping data, ENL Consortium terminal, Lagos Port took delivery of 8,825 tonnes from Pamyat Kirova. Also, Crown Ruby offloaded 7,438 tonnes; Green Brazil, 4,750 tonnes; Orange Spirit, 4,900 tonnes; Orange Sea, 4,350 tonnes; Savanna Wind, 4,550 tonnes; Orange Stream, 4,350 tonnes and Callisto, 6,007 tonnes.
According to findings, Lagos Port was only able to take delivery of 45, 170 tonnes of fish valued at N73.6 billion ($51.9 million) from eight vessels between the January and April 2024 to Lagos Port.
The consignment was 1.8 per cent of the 2.5 million tonnes fish deficit needed in the country as current demand has reached 3.6 million metric tonnes per annum.
Last year, the value of fish imported into Nigeria from Norway dropped by 5.9 per cent from ₦3.4 billion to ₦3.2 billion over a period due to forex restrictions in the country.
According to the director for Africa for the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), Mr. Tronds Kostveit, Nigeria is the largest importer of Norwegian seafood, adding that the country imported a total of 43,251 metric tonnes of various fish last year.
However, he noted the foreign exchange (Forex) restrictions placed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on some items, including stock fish have affected the seafood trade relations between the two countries.
Kostveit revealed that mackerel was the most imported fish product with a total of 14,997 metric tons, this was followed by herring with 13,845 metric tonnes, while stockfish recorded a total of 10,740 metric tonnes.
Recall that no fish vessels was expected at Lagos Port in September 2024 due to the soaring costs and high foreign exchange to bring the consignments to the country.
According to the chairman of the Seaport Terminal Operators of Nigeria (STOAN) and chief executive officer of ENL Consortium, Vicky Haastrup, no vessel has berthed at the ports with fish.
Haastrup said: “As I’m talking today, we are not expecting any fish vessels at ENL. A lot of fish vessels used to call at ENL regularly but now we are not expecting any throughout this month. This is because fish has become very expensive for Nigerians.