Differentiation in the Atlantic salmon industry: A synopsis

Abstract

The value chain for farmed salmon has experienced substantial changes over the past decades as a result of innovation in production technology, logistics, distribution and marketing that have helped facilitate the rapid production growth. The high level of control over the production environment in principle makes it possible for Atlantic salmon to be tailored on a number of product attributes or dimensions in response to requirements from different customer groups. However, when compared to meat production, differentiation in farmed salmon remains limited, pointing to a still immature industry. Based primarily on interviews with Norwegian producers, we offer an overview of the prominent differentiation strategies today and discuss barriers to further differentiation.