The value chain for farmed salmon has experienced tremendous growth over the past decades as a result of innovation in production technology, logistics, distribution and marketing. The high level of control over the production environment in principle makes it possible for Atlantic salmon to be tailored on a number of dimensions in response to requirements from different customer groups in the supply chain. However, when compared to meat production, differentiation in farmed salmon is in its infancy. Based on interviews with Norwegian producers, we outline the character and degree of differentiation at each stage in the value chain today and explore opportunities and barriers for further differentiation . Harvesting and primary processing of farmed Atlantic salmon generally result in a relatively homogeneous product. Differentiation is to a degree based on physical properties, which limits the range of product development and differentiation towards consumers, concomitantly impacting the possibility for upstream producers to increase their value creation. Opportunities for differentiation are greater in B2B marketing than in B2 C marketing, as the former allows salmon companies to offer differentiated value to customers o n several dimensions, such as contracts, certifications, traceability and guarantees related to e.g. volumes, timing of deliveries, feed ingredients, production practices and environmental impact. Salmon is also sold on provenance, but being largely uniform, the claims of uniqueness may be difficult to substantiate. This study presents an overview of the prominent differentiation strategies today, as well as a clarification of limitations and prospects for further value creation through differentiation. Throughout, we offer a means for ranking quality dimensions and propose an index of the degree of differentiation at each step in the Atlantic salmon value chain.
Keywords: aquaculture , salmon , differentiation