Two aircraft carrying between 80 and 100 tonnes of Norwegian salmon each have been denied transit to Asia in Moscow.
Two salmon cargo planes have been stopped in Moscow, Russia, and forced to return to Oslo Airport, Norway. This was confirmed by several exporters SalmonBusiness spoke to on Wednesday afternoon.
The planes had taken off from Oslo without any warning of the situation they eventually got into when they landed in Moscow. An exporter told SalmonBusiness that the planes were refused entry to unload and were returned directly.
“We have received a letter from via our freight forwarder stating that an embargo has been introduced. We don’t know anything more than that. This happened all of a sudden and we have no more information on what has happened. What is going on in the future, we also know nothing about at the moment,” said an exporter who did not want to be named.
The planes returned to Oslo Airport on Wednesday afternoon.
Foreign Ministry and Embassy
Exporter Sekkingstad is one of those affected by the situation. They told SalmonBusiness that they have been in contact with both the Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Moscow, so far without any further information.
“We know nothing more than that the planes were denied port calls and were sent back. I have been in contact with the authorities without getting any response so far. We have no idea what has created this situation,” said Sekkingstad sales manager (Asia) Phillip Pettersen.
“We learned this today this morning. The situation is very real,” he added.
Rebookings
Coast Seafood CEO Sverre Søraa told SalmonBusiness that their salmon has also been returned and that they are working to find alternative solutions for shipping.
“Fish that should have been in Korea, for example, have been returned. We are working hard to get this booked on other planes,” he said.
Why the fish has been returned, Søraa also said he does not know at this time.
“We do not have a complete overview of what is happening yet,” he said.
