In recent years, Eksfin (Export Finance Norway) has experienced strong growth in the demand for loans and guarantees for the seafood industry. Eksfin, which is a government supplement to private funding, is impressed by the growth of the Norwegian aquaculture industry, especially thanks to innovation and technological development.

Norway’s export industries, including fisheries and aquaculture, need major technological and financial boosts. This means that the industry, the banks and the state must work as a team. Going forward, we still expect to see growth in loans and guarantees for this important export industry. Tone Lunde Bakker, managing director of Eksfin.

A good example is the company Ava Ocean in Ålesund, which has taken over an offshore ship that is to be converted into a scallop harvester. While dredge fishing has been banned in Norway for more than 30 years, Ava Ocean has now developed a nonabrasive and efficient technology for sustainable precision harvesting of Iceland Scallops, a delicacy reminiscent of Great Scallops.

Eksfin provides loans and coverage of credit risk in this project and is helping to drive the renewal of the entire seafood industry fleet.

Read: Offshore ships are converted into innovative scallop harvesters

Industry in Møre and Romsdal is the largest consumer of Eksfin’s services

In the period 2015 to 2021, the fisheries and aquaculture industry has been the recipient of NOK 12 billion worth of guarantees and loans.

The graph shows a rapid expansion of Eksfin’s loans and guarantees to the industry since 2015, which spiked in the years after 2019.

Industry in Møre and Romsdal is the largest consumer of Eksfin’s schemes. The newest project is the state-of-the-art fishing trawler “Akraberg”, which was delivered from Sunnmøre and Vard Brattvåg on 30 June. Eksfin has provided long-term financing to the Faroese shipping company Framherji in the amount of 312 million Danish kroner, and the loan has been partially repaid during the construction period up to completion. The loan is a collaboration between Eksfin and Nordea’s seafood department in Ålesund, and the entire amount is guaranteed by Nordea.