Norway's seafood exports rose 8 percent to hit a new annual record high of 74.5 billion Norwegian kroner (8.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, the Norwegian Seafood Council said on Tuesday.

Seafood exports to the EU reached 50 billion kroner (5.6 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time after a growth of 17 percent in 2015, accounting for 67 percent of total seafood exports, the Norwegian Seafood Council said in a statement.

"In a year with trade restrictions in several markets and an import embargo in Russia, the result was better than expected. A weak Norwegian krone, combined with good demand for fresh products in particular, contributed to a new export record for Norwegian seafood," said Terje E. Martinussen, managing director of the Norwegian Seafood Council.

"The growth in the EU and the United States in recent years also shows the importance of government and industry working well together in order to obtain access to markets," Martinussen said. "Good trade agreements are absolutely critical in order to achieve growth in new markets in the future."

In 2015, Norway exported seafood to 143 countries and the largest individual market is Poland, amounting to 6.9 billion kroner (770 million U.S. dollars) in the year.

Poland is a steadily more important consumer market, but a substantial share of the exports to Poland go to processing and further distribution to the European market, according to the statement.

Denmark, the next largest market for Norwegian seafood, is also an important market for processing and transhipment. Norwegian exports to Denmark were 6.4 billion kroner (715 million U.S. dollars) in 2015, up 27 percent from the year before. Enditem

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