Generic promotion of Norwegian seafood exports

Abstract

The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) works cooperatively with its seafood industry to develop foreign demand for Norwegian seafood through generic promotion and advertising. The generic promotion activities are financed through fees levied on all Norwegian seafood exports. Using an econometric simulation approach, the study addresses two key questions regarding the NSC generic seafood export promotion programs over time: (1) What have been the effects of those programs on the Norwegian seafood export volume, price, and revenue in the aggregate? (2) Have Norwegian seafood producers, exporters, and other stakeholders benefitted from the export-levy-funded generic export promotion programs? Examining potential scenarios for a likely range of the price responsiveness of the Norwegian seafood export supply, the study finds that NSC promotion added about 12% to the aggregate export value of Norwegian seafood between 2003 and 2017 resulting from an addition to the export price and volume of 10% and 4%, respectively. About 17% of stakeholder profits over that period was due to the promotion programs resulting in an industry profit benefit to cost ratio of about 12 to 13 to one.