How a trade through Fish of Norway works

Fiskeruta AS, trading as Fish of Norway, acts as sourcing agent. The sale contract is between the buyer and the named seller, and we act on the buyer’s instruction for a fee. The exporter of record — the approved Norwegian establishment that holds the export registration and to which the health certificate is issued — is named separately in every offer and order confirmation, whether or not it is the same company as the seller.

A buyer is never left to work this out from context. If the seller and the exporter of record are not stated on the order confirmation, the transaction is not confirmed.

Our fee is stated as a separate line in the offer comparison, expressed either as a percentage of the goods value or as a fixed sourcing fee. It is never folded into the unit price.

Additional services — inspection, document handling, freight coordination — are priced separately and only charged where they have been ordered.

Every offer we pass on carries a stated validity date, a stated volume and a stated Incoterm. An offer outside its validity is not a price; it is a historical reference. Prices move weekly in this trade, and we will not hold a supplier to a lapsed quote on a buyer’s behalf.

The written specification agreed before shipment is the reference for acceptance. It states species, form, size class, grading standard, packing, temperature, shelf life on arrival and the rejection criteria. Anything not written down is not part of the agreement, however clearly it was understood in conversation.

Every transaction names an Incoterms 2020 rule, and that rule determines where risk passes from seller to buyer. It does not by itself determine who arranges freight beyond the obligations set out in the rule, nor who insures beyond the minimum required by CIF and CIP. Where the parties want a different allocation, it is written into the contract rather than assumed from the three letters.

Discrepancies are registered against the lot number, within the deadline stated in the transaction contract, with photographs, the temperature log and the weight actually received. Deadlines are short for chilled product, and they are agreed in advance rather than argued afterwards.

We pursue recovery with the seller on the buyer’s behalf and keep the buyer informed of the position. As agent we do not guarantee the seller’s performance, and we say so rather than leaving it implied.

Counterparties, owners and beneficial owners are screened against applicable sanctions lists before a first trade and again on any change of ownership. We decline transactions that we cannot clear, and we do not give a commercial reason for a compliance decision.

Unless the transaction contract states otherwise, Norwegian law applies and the courts of Norway have jurisdiction. Where the parties prefer arbitration or another forum, that is agreed in the transaction contract.