Norwegian seafood council is a joke of an organization!!!!

Norway is a hard country doing business in, especially where you need to be a part of an organization polarized by old men and government rules that doesn’t make any sense for a new company that try to make it in the seafood and export business around the globe so we contacted some entrepreneurs that liked to start out in the business.

Norwegian seafood is known around the globe but most people in general don’t know how the system work. We have an organization Norwegian seafood council that you as an export company need to be a part of and where you also need to pay a yearly fee, just to be able to export your seafood on top of other export fees.

The problem

The problem with seafood Norway is that they are mostly influenced by older and bigger companies that have been in the business for years where new companies are squished out of the markets by them not letting them have a fear deal bringing new companies into the marketplace.

Norwegian seafood council as an organization have representatives around the globe that should help new companies bring Norwegian seafood to the global market as it is heavily promoted within the community in different countries. It seems nice to have a big nice organization that can stand behind you in the preferred country you like to do business in, but the problem starts when you contact the different apartments within the organization stated in the country you like to do business in.

Don’t get any answers

We started to contact the preferred apartments in the countries we liked to start doing business. In almost every case the representative person answered one time and newer answered beck to us to further discus the opportunities we can have in the specific countries. In other cases when the representative answered they never could tell us if we were competitive in price which we found mysterious since they were bragging about their long history in the different markets (20–30 years and so).

What about competitiveness, it’s the first thing you need to know!!

How can you pay representatives $2500-$20.00 from Norwegian seafood council, the organization you need to be a part of and also pay fees for before even beginning exporting seafood to any country? Yes, that is true that you need to pay a fee for not knowing you are competitive in the specific market you like to be a part of. You can use representatives for setting up business meetings if you like but wouldn’t it be obvious that price is a factor. Didn’t they have local employees and representatives from seafood Norway knowing their markets for 20–30 years?

Madrid is the biggest market for seafood in Europe and we contacted director Ms Grethe Bergsland from Norwegian seafood council in Madrid. We had some conversations with here and in the end, she couldn’t tell us anything about we are competitive in price after handing over all information we had about our partners, product and price so why should we pay for the service then and why are you representing Norwegians interest when you can’t even tell us that. You suppose to work and represent Norwegian interests.

Embarrassing

It’s pretty embarrassing knowing that the organization you need to be a part of couldn’t tell you if your competitive and out of no reason stopped our conversation in every country, we tried to make business contacts in trough them and Innovation Norway or the Norwegian embassy that supposed to help new businesses establishing in new markets.

Why have employees for fun

We didn’t get anywhere with our contacts from any country represented by Norwegian seafood council. The impression is very bad and it’s not fair for any company trying to be a part of this business not getting simple answers about the market they like to be a part of, especially when you pay for it. They don’t have any control on employee’s or what they are representative for in this organization. Its corrupted and fake as if they are hiding something that are only for the benefits of companies that have been in the market for generations.

Big orders

We got bigger orders but every time we vent to the producer or distributor of the specific seafood we got denied access and in the end we couldn’t get the product we needed for our customers for whatever reason so the bigger companies again held us out of the marketplace so don’t think you’re going to get any help from anybody in this business. If you go to Italy, Spain or other European countries you almost every time see the same names popping up in the different seafood markets. It’s the same names that denied us to be successful entrepreneurs stating in the business.

Meetings

Norwegian seafood council have serval meetings every year around Norway for members where they have discussions with local politicians but every time a new and creative person or company have a new idea about the industry, they make it very hard for any new company to succeed.

Press release

Seafood Norway have many nice commercials representing Norwegian seafood council and it looks very nice from outside, but the truth is that this organization is just a turtle Shell for bigger companies so they can make more money and make it more difficult for new companies and entrepreneurs to participate in a lucrative business.

Think of the future & anxiety

If any company like to participate in the second largest export industry in Norway, they have to think twice before doing so because you are not getting anywhere with seafood Norway or any other company trying making business in a community having a lock on it. It’s like they have anxiety for new companies that are innovative and wants to have a piece of the Norwegian seafood industry that are not existing for any new company coming to the marketplace.

Agents & the end..

Our Italian agent and a lot of other people in the industry was very surprised to hear how the organization operates and never thought this of the Norwegian seafood council as an organization. We like to be a part of our national treasure, but it seems we can’t in this environment until a new generation takes over.