Norwegian seafood is becoming an item that more and more Vietnamese people choose to make Lunar New Year (or Tet) gifts, besides other luxurious items such as foreign wine, cigar, bonsai…
Some of the major imported food chains in Vietnam began to introduce new gift baskets for the Lunar New Year 2023. Notably, Norwegian seafood such as salmon, king crab, red lobster, mackerel, cod… account for a large amount of these samples. Arctic Seafood Norway (ASN), one of the Norwegian seafood distributors in Vietnam, said that in the upcoming Lunar New Year, they will provide many other high-class seafood products for the Vietnamese market, especially crustaceans. In particular, for the first time, Vietnamese market will have fresh Norwegian snow crab shipped and preserved according to the strict process of Norway.
Not only this year, in the past 2-3 years, high-class seafood from Norway has become a Tet gift that many Vietnamese people sought. Norwegian seafood has a high price but clear origin labels, higher quality standards than the common standard of Europe. Seafood is also a diverse, healthy and easy-to-cook food. Therefore, seafood imported from Norway easily becomes the trend of Vietnamese people when looking for Tet gifts.
In fact, Norwegian seafood has been present for a long time in Vietnam. According to the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), Vietnam is currently the largest Norwegian seafood consumption market in Southeast Asia with a total output of about 50,000 tons in 2022. The products that are favoured by Vietnamese are salmon, in 2022, up to 49% over the same period last year. Besides, shellfish (shrimp, clams, shellfish, snails) growth of 9% compared to 2021. According to Ms. Hilde Solbakken, Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam, the potential of the Vietnamese market is very large because it is a country with the world’s leading seafood consumption with 37kg/person/year.
NSC reports show that although Vietnam is the world’s leading seafood exporter, with a large population and increasing people’s income, the demand for seafood consumption of Vietnamese people is very large. Therefore, NSC has ranked Vietnam into the emerging market group of this country’s seafood industry. In 2023, NSC will promote trade promotion for Norwegian seafood in Vietnam. Accordingly, Vietnamese consumers as well as importers will receive much support from the Norwegian government.
Vietnamese people attach great importance to giving gifts to each other on the traditional Tet holidays, especially to congratulate relatives, thank partners, reward employees… The average GDP of Vietnamese people has now reached 4,100 USD per year and is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. Therefore, the New Year gift market in Vietnam will focus more on the new, high-class and unique products, in order to meet the diverse and increasing demands of customers.
Sources: Thanh Nien, Phap luat & Xa hoi.
