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ore than 50 dishes featuring salmon were served at the recent Norwegian Seafood Extravaganza — a meeting of Norwegian and Indonesian businesses — as part of a campaign to increase market share in Indonesia as most Norwegian salmon is exported to Japan.

“We bring lots of this coldwater seafood into the country and we displayed it as part of Norway’s marketing of seafood products,” the board member of the Indonesian Norwegian Business Council (INBC) Per Fredrik Ecker told The Jakarta Post on Friday in Jakarta.

He said the seafood extravaganza was an annual event to strengthen business-to-business relations between Indonesia and Norway.

“Norway represents the biggest seafood exporter in the world, and it’s all about the salmon […]. Norway is one of the biggest exporters worldwide and this is actually pretty much driving basically the international industry from Norway right now,” he said.

He said the number of salmon exports to Indonesia was “not so big for the time being but it has a huge potential to grow”.

“Japan and China are probably the biggest receivers of Norwegian salmon in this region.”

Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik said “We […] convinced Indonesia that salmon is good and healthy and you should eat more of it.”

“We can transmit our experience in fish framing to Indonesia.”

Norwegian First Secretary for politics and trade Borgar Olsen Tormodsgard said the value of Norwegian seafood exports to Indonesia was US$18 million in 2015.

“[We] hope for more in the future,” he said.

Tormodsgard said in 2015 the exports of seafood products to China and Japan amounted to US$290 million and $400 million, respectively.

He said that globally, Norway exported 36 million meals of its seafood per day worth 74.5 billion krone (US$8.8 billion) in 2015.

Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno and National Development Planning Agency chairman Bambang Brodjonoegoro were the guests of honor at the Seafood Extravaganza held by the Norwegian Embassy and the INBC.

Siti Nurbaya said “the seafood extravaganza was an example of how sustainable management of natural resources also can create many jobs and huge revenue.”

“I was impressed to learn that Norway’s salmon exports [to Indonesia] was 1.4 million tons in 2015, […] which grew five percent compared to the previous year,” she said.

She said that Indonesia and Norway have enjoyed strong relations not only on the bilateral level but also in multilateral efforts to address global issues including climate change.

Traavik said Indonesia and Norway had already cooperated in research in aquaculture and fighting illegal fishing under a government-to-government scheme.

“What we want to do is really to enhance [our] business-to-business relationship and bring [our] expertise together, because we believe Indonesian aquaculture has a very bright future. It is going to grow fast, to become a big industry,” he said.

The cooperation, he further said, would create more jobs in Indonesia.

Aquaculture, feed industries, fish hatcheries and processing factories are among the sectors that have been opened up to foreign investors, while the catch fishery sector has been strictly reserved for foreign entities.

To attract investors to Indonesia’s aquaculture, the Indonesian government will build exclusive zones to ensure business continuity, simplify investment procedures and grant tax incentives on several imported raw materials. (sha)