Aerial photo taken on September 8 shows a salmon farm in Bergen, Norway. Photo: Deng Zijun/GT

Norway has witnessed a big jump in seafood exports to China during the first eight months of this year, official data showed on Tuesday, as bilateral diplomatic ties improved and Chinese demand for seafood continued to rise.

Seafood exported to China from the North European nation rose 38 percent year-on-year to 3.2 billion Norwegian kroner ($357.16 million) from January to August, data from the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) showed. 

China was the third-largest buyer of Norwegian seafood by volume among 146 countries and regions during the eight-month period, the NSC said. 

The rise in shipments comes on the heels of thawed diplomatic ties. After six years of tension, China and Norway normalized relations in the end of 2016. The trade war between China and the US has led to a significant drop in China's imports of US seafood, leaving a void in the market for Norway. 

While Norwegian seafood is enjoying the surge, the seafood industry in the US is having a hard time. Since China imposed 25 percent retaliatory import tariffs on US imports in July last year, total US seafood export to China has dropped 36 percent year-on-year at the end of June, according to some media reports. 

Norwegian seafood is popular among Chinese consumers, Victoria Braathen, director of the Norwegian Seafood Council for the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, told the Global Times.

"Based on our annual consumer studies, 44 percent of Chinese consumers consider Norway as their preferred country of origin for salmon, which provides a very good basis for further developing the Chinese market," she said.