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DHL doubles cargo capacity to tap Asian demand for Norwegian salmon

DHL GLOBAL Forwarding is expanding its air freight services to transport Norwegian salmon to South Korea and China.

The new service will ship seafood from Oslo to Seoul and Shanghai twice a week, with a second service to Brussels and Cincinnati.

DHL's forwarding arm will use a Boeing 747-400 freighter to operate the flights and provide additional transpacific capacity by returning to Norway eastbound.

Demand for Norwegian salmon has surged in recent years - 2015 proven strong following aggressive marketing from Norwegian exporters.

But growth began to slow in 2016, with the Norwegian Seafood Councilreporting just a six per cent rise in volumes to the US compared with 35 per cent the year before, London's Loadstar reported.

Export volumes in the first half of the year rose 2.5 per cent to 1.25 million tonnes. Exports to South Korea dropped 10 per cent year-on-year to 18,000 tonnes, while volumes to China over this period fell 40 per cent, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council.