Transport cooperation is nearing a milestone.
This summer, legislative changes made it possible to transport fresh fish from Europe to Asia through Russia. Finnish consultant Micael Blomster is working to increase freight flows between China and Finland. He called the rule changes a “solid breakthrough”, also for the opportunity to transport fresh salmon from Narvik, Northern Norway, to China.
Blomster then thought that the first container of fresh fish could go during this year but that didn’t happen. But now the railway industry publication jernbanemagasine published under the auspices of the country’s Railway Directorate, writes that the first train is ready for departure early next year.
Salmon will be transported by train from Norway to China using existing transport solutions from Narvik via aFinland’s Boden, Haparanda/Torneå and to the logistics center Kouvola, which has regular departures to and from the Chinese inland port Xi’an.
Narvik Harbor has a cooperation agreement with both Kouvola and Xi’an, and the train journey between these places takes around ten days.
BluWrap’s solution is to make sure salmon stays fresh all the way. Testing showed that BluWrap modified atmosphere can double the shelf life of fresh food. BluWraps’ modified atmosphere on salmon and found that it improved the shelf life from 14 days to 28.
“From Haparanda on the Swedish side, we have both Swedish and Norwegian companies interested in driving. And if salmon can be kept fresh for several weeks, the potential for growth is enormous. Equally, we depend on the assistance of carriers and freight forwarders in different contexts, not least because tariff barriers must be respected in different ways. The best thing would be for the authorities at the top level to meet and get agreements in place,” said Narvik’s port manager Rune J. Arnøy in a comment to publication.
