One of the key goals for the Norwegian Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Roy Angelvik, is to establish the free trade agreement between Norway and China.
And this may happen at a very convenient moment, because, according to Undercurrent News Chinas largest ecommerce company, Alibaba, is looking make links with the seafood industry – something that Norwegian businesses could benefit greatly from.
“In the future, we see ourselves selling hundreds and thousand of lobsters and salmon on the [Alibaba online] platform. We will be a major participant in the seafood industry,” said J. Michael Evans, the man tasked with leading Alibaba’s business outside of China.
The relationship between Norway and China has been on a halt for the previous years, since a Chinese dissident and artist, Liu Xiaobo, received the Nobel Prize while prisoned in China on ‘suspicion of inciting subversion of state power’. This award was given in 2010, and the relationship between the two countries hasn’t been perfect since.
But as the years have gone by, Norway is slowly entering the Chinese market again, especially in the seafood area.
And therefore it would be a tremendous advantage for the Nordic country if Alibaba would eye the opportunity of distributing Norwegian seafood through the platform.
As Undercurrent News reported earlier this week, the salmon export from Norway has already risen in 2018 compared to 2017 with 1,613%. This could further expand if Norwegian companies manages to get a deal with Alibaba, and the Norwegian government manages to secure a free trade agreement with China.
