Qatar Airways Cargo celebrates a record year for salmon shipments out of Norway – The Peninsula

Qatar Airways Cargo celebrates a record year for salmon shipments out of Norway – The Peninsula

Doha: With seven Qatar Airways passenger flights and six Boeing 777 freighter services each week, the Oslo-Doha route is well served, and the airline’s cargo capacity well stocked.

Ninety-five percent of all perishable seafood (PES) on board Qatar Airways flights out of Scandinavia is salmon. Iceland and Faroe Island (Denmark) also see some seafood traffic which includes live king crabs, trout, and other seafood, however the bulk of the salmon business originates in Norway. At 1.3 million tonnes of salmon exported in 2021 which is the country’s best year to date, and a segment value of EUR8.57 billion/US$9.28 billion, Norway is by far the world’s number one salmon exporter.

“Salmon is a particularly delicate cargo commodity as it requires skilled, hygienic handling in temperature-controlled conditions and, above all, reliable, fast connections to its final destination. Qatar Airways Cargo not only offers a global network of over 150 stations, we also reacted quickly to support Norwegian seafood exporters when the pandemic led to a dramatic decrease in available belly capacity. By introducing passenger freighters to the Norwegian seafood market, including Harstad-Narvik Airport in Evenes and Bodø Airport in Northern Norway, Qatar Airways Cargo significantly increased its capacity to the Norwegian market in 2021