Norway is looking to capture more of the Chinese market as the country's per capita consumption has grown 3 percent annually to reach 41 kg last year, according to Paul Tsai of Promar Consulting.

The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) asked Promar Consulting to research the Chinese seafood sector over the summer. Exiting NSC Director of Mainland China and Hong Kong Sigmund Bjørgo said that although "no one can beat us on market insight" for salmon and cod, there are several other species in the Norwegian sector that needs further research.

The report -- The NSC Market Analysis for Norwegian Seafood Products in the China Market -- broke down 13 species and its potential in the Chinese market for Norwegian companies. The species included saithe, Greenland halibut, Atlantic mackerel, herring, crab and more.

China's seafood imports are still mainly re-exported. Last year, only 4 percent of imported seafood was consumed in the country, a total volume supply 68 million metric tons.

Over the last five years China has exported more seafood than it imports with more than 2.5 million metric tons of seafood imported since 2012 and 4 million metric tons of seafood exported.

Pollock accounted for 31 percent of 2016 imported seafood; salmon (Pacific and Atlantic) 10 percent; and cod 10 percent.

Norway has been the No. 3 seafood supplier for China in the last five years, behind Russia and the United States, which rank first and second, respectively.

However, the report faced some challenges due to restrict data on smuggled seafood.

"There are many gray channels, and different gray channels," said Bjørgo. "With this report, we can look into these other species and decide, are we ready to start investing on some of these species in to China?"

The report was commissioned in June and completed last week. Its results were presented for the first time on at Tuesday's Norwegian-China Summit, which connected Norwegian exporters to Chinese buyers.

The NSC plans to decide in the following months on which species it should focus on.

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