From 3-5 March 2026, Nordic Fish Exports attended the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF), which housed over 1,000 leading stakeholders from across the fishing and aquaculture sectors in the city of Bergen. This year’s NASF was an ideal forum for meeting with industry professionals, receiving relevant input, and attending several interesting seminars on developments in seafood, markets, and the broader industry outlook. For an analytical company, it is valuable to participate in these discussions, exchange perspectives, and stay up to date on trends affecting the sector.
The seafood sector in the Nordics is undergoing some interesting trends as we enter 2026. The pelagic sector is discussing the overall stock situation in the North Atlantic, with research institutions issuing warnings regarding the current state of mackerel stocks, while coastal states are weighing the effectiveness of partial or comprehensive agreements in the sharing of pelagic fish stocks. This is happening at a time of soaring mackerel prices.
The image below shows Norwegian mackerel and groundfish prices in DKK
The groundfish sector has similarly seen soaring prices, with overall increases across most groundfish species. These trends have shifted the focus on potential alternatives to the traditional groundfish patterns, especially within the species of cod, where some speakers proposed tilapia as a potential substitute for fish & chips from cod. Here, attendants had the opportunity to taste tilapia fish and chips, which we thought had a great taste!
Thanks to everyone at NASF 2026 for a great conference.
