Salmon prices are about to leap by as much as 10 per cent, industry analysts have warned.
The latest blow for shoppers comes as Norway’s Left-leaning government plans to slap a hefty tax on the delicacy beloved by Britain’s middle classes.
Norway is the world’s biggest producer, accounting for 1.5m tons a year, and half the UK’s farmed salmon – a whopping 35,000 tons – comes from the Nordic nation.
The Norwegian government wants to spend the tax haul from one of its most successful industries on schools and hospitals.
Fishy business: Norway is the world’s biggest producer, accounting for 1.5 million tons a year, and half the UK’s farmed salmon – a whopping 35,000 tons – comes from the Nordic nation
Lance Forman, owner of London-based H Forman and Sons, which supplies leading restaurants as well as Harrods, said: ‘We all know it is coming.
Prices could rise as much as 10 per cent or higher and the worry is that at some point the average shopper says “I can’t afford this”.’
Despite lobbying efforts by the salmon giants, the tax is expected to be passed by parliament in the coming weeks.
The tax raid could lead to an influx from Chile, the world’s second biggest salmon exporter. But its salmon industry has been hit by outbreaks of the disease salmonid rickettsial septicaemia.
This means Chilean salmon farmers use a lot of chemicals, pesticides and antibiotics.
Ivan Vindheim, boss of Norwegian salmon farmer Mowi, has called the tax ‘anti-business’, adding that the proposals were a ‘dark cloud for the Norwegian salmon industry’.
