Regional market
North America
Regulation-heavy and specification-driven. FDA and CFIA compliance decides whether a consignment clears, long before quality does.
Selling seafood into the United States and Canada is less a question of finding a buyer than of clearing a compliance gate. The FDA requires a documented HACCP plan, prior notice on every shipment, and for many species a SIMP record traceable back to the vessel. Canada adds its own SFCR licensing. None of this is difficult, but all of it must be right before the container sails, and a first-time exporter who treats it as paperwork to be handled on arrival will lose the load.
Most requested species
Atlantic salmon
Salmo salar
Norway’s largest seafood export. Continuous harvest, predictable size distribution, and airfreight to the main Asian and Gulf markets in one to three days.
- Season now
- Peak season
- Origin
- Farmed
- Condition
- Fresh, chilled · Frozen · Smoked
- Forms
- HOG · FLT · LOIN · PORT · VA
Snow crab
Chionoecetes opilio
Barents Sea snow crab, cooked and frozen at sea in clusters. A newer Norwegian fishery with growing volume.
- Season now
- Out of season
- Origin
- Wild-caught
- Condition
- Frozen
- Forms
- CLST
Red king crab
Paralithodes camtschaticus
Finnmark king crab, live or frozen clusters. Small quota, high value, and the tightest logistics of anything we handle.
- Season now
- Available
- Origin
- Wild-caught
- Condition
- Live · Frozen
- Forms
- WR · CLST
Cold-water prawn
Pandalus borealis
Cooked at sea within minutes of capture. Shell-on or peeled, sold on count per kilo.
- Season now
- Available
- Origin
- Wild-caught
- Condition
- Frozen
- Forms
- WR · PND
Atlantic cod
Gadus morhua
Barents Sea and Lofoten cod, quota-managed and MSC-certified. The skrei window from January to April is the year’s highest quality.
- Season now
- Available
- Origin
- Wild-caught · Farmed
- Condition
- Fresh, chilled · Frozen
- Forms
- WR · HG · FLT · LOIN · PORT · SPLT
Haddock
Melanogrammus aeglefinus
Finer flake and softer texture than cod, at a consistently lower landed cost. The default choice for UK and Northern European food service.
- Season now
- Available
- Origin
- Wild-caught
- Condition
- Fresh, chilled · Frozen · Smoked
- Forms
- HG · FLT · LOIN · PORT
Preferred product forms
- Fresh salmon fillet, trim E, portion-cut
- Frozen snow crab and king crab clusters
- Frozen cod and haddock portions for retail
Certificate and document requirements
- FDA prior notice and HACCP documentation
- SIMP records where the species is covered
- Health certificate and catch certificate
- CFIA SFCR licence for Canadian import
Transport modes
- Airfreight from Oslo to the US East Coast for fresh product
- Reefer container across the Atlantic, 10–16 days
Typical door-to-door transit as quoted by forwarders, counted from collection at the plant to delivery at the buyer’s address, including export handling and import clearance under normal conditions. Customs holds, inspection sampling and missed connections are not included. Last reviewed 15 September 2026.
- Packing and sizes
- Retail-ready with English and French bilingual labelling for Canada. Net weight declarations must be net of glaze.
- Key ports
- Oslo · Newark · Boston · Montréal · Los Angeles
- Buyer categories
- National retail and club-store programmes
- Food service distributors and white-tablecloth suppliers
- Importers and re-processors
- Payment risk
- Low with established importers. New counterparties are usually documented against a letter of credit or credit-insured open account.
- Seasonal opportunity
- Crab programmes are planned against the North American season, not the Norwegian one. Lent moves whitefish; Thanksgiving and Christmas move premium salmon.
- Working languages
- English · Français · Español
- Time zone
- EST to PST