When Norwegian Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg visited China in late March he took the opportunity to kick off a new supermarket campaign, marketing Norwegian salmon.

The billionaire club
- Norway’s seafood export to China had an export value of more than 1 billion Norwegian kroner (NOK) in 2006. This is approximately one tenth of the total Norwegian export to China and salmon-export is a key element in this figure says Åshild Nakken, Norwegian Seafood Export Council’s (NSEC) representative in China.

Salmon and Ibsen
- If you ask a Chinese what he know about Norway the ones that know anything will quickly answer that the country is home of Norwegian salmon and Henrik Ibsen. We strive to make Norwegian salmon even better known to the public and the increase in consumption shows that we are on the right course. One of our challenges now is to make the positive health effect you gain from eating Norwegian salmon better known among Chinese consumers. To bring the PM to one of Beijing’s many new supermarkets is a good way of getting this message across, says Nakken.

The official state visit takes place from the 25th to the 28th of March and the Norwegian Minister of Trade, Dag Terje Andersen is
part of the official delegation. On Wednesday 28^th of March the Minister of Trade will visit a Chinese supermarket in Shanghai to see how the campaign kicked off by the PM is organized.

Large media coverage
- The Norwegian state visit attracted large attention from Chinese media. Tv- and radio stations with several hundred million viewers and listeners interviewed the Norwegian officials. The chance to talk to so many people that already has a relationship to Norwegian salmon, to underline our important messages about health is of great value, concludes Åshild Nakken from NSEC.

Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg: Salmon tastes delicious. It is good that people in China opens 

Facts: Norwegian salmon export to China was in 5100 tons, to a value of 148 million NOK. This is an increase by 40 % in value and 20 % in volume from 2005. The export to Hong Kong was 10 300 tons Norwegian salmon to a value of 300 million NOK, a rise by almost 50 % in value and by 23 % in volume from the previous year.