Over the past three days, DanFish International at Aalborg Congress & Culture Center (AKKC) has welcomed a wave of visitors from no fewer than 49 different countries. While AKKC reports a rise in visitor numbers, both exhibitors and attendees continue to highlight the exhibition as “the place to be” for the industry.

For the past three days, the eyes of Europe’s—and much of the world’s—fishing industry have been firmly fixed on Aalborg, where DanFish International once again served as a major gathering point for the sector, bringing together 400 exhibitors from 30 different countries.

This year, the director of AKKC, the organizer behind DanFish, has even more reason to be proud. In addition to overwhelmingly positive feedback from both exhibitors and visitors, he can also report a significant increase in attendance.

• After COVID, we experienced a slight decline in visitor numbers at DanFish, which we saw as a natural consequence of global events. That’s why we are especially pleased to announce that the trend has turned. This year, we saw a 7% increase in attendance, welcoming a total of 13.708 visitors from 49 different countries, says Nicolaj Holm, CEO of AKKC.

According to Nicolaj Holm, several new initiatives at this year’s exhibition contributed to the growth, including the NordicRas conference and the associated DanAqua exhibition focusing on aquaculture, as well as Danish Maritime’s conference “Future Propulsion and Green Transition”.

MINISTER PRIORITIZES DANFISH
The importance of DanFish International for the fishing industry has also been underlined by the participation of several prominent figures. Among them was Peter Borg, Greenland’s Minister for Fisheries, Hunting, Agriculture and Self-Sufficiency, who prioritized time in his busy schedule to attend the exhibition.

• I’m here because DanFish is an important exhibition—and it has been for many years. It’s also an event that Greenlandic stakeholders greatly value. It’s a tradition for them to attend, to discover new products, new partnerships, and even shipyards to build new vessels. That’s why it’s essential for me, as the minister responsible for the sector, to be here as well, explains Peter Borg.

The fishing industry is Greenland’s largest and most important industry, making DanFish a natural meeting place for many exhibitors and visitors from Greenland.

DEALS ARE MADE ON THE EXHIBITION FLOOR
Figures from this year’s exhibition show that 65,6% of attendees have purchasing power or influence purchasing decisions within their companies. While exhibitors use DanFish to showcase the latest innovations, maintain relationships, and build networks that can lead to future deals, many transactions are also concluded directly at the exhibition.

And in the fishing industry, these are far from small deals. Aalborg-based company Beritech finalized the sale of its fully electric shrimp cooker to a Norwegian customer for DKK 650.000 during the exhibition.

• We’re thrilled whenever we sell new machines, and it’s fantastic to see customers recognize that Denmark is a specialist in cold-water shrimp. They want our equipment and value our expertise, says Christian Nielsen, Project Manager at Beritech.

The shrimp cooker features electric heating elements and an electric actuator, making it part of the innovative solutions shaping the future of the fishing industry. This marks the fourth sale of this model in 2025.

This year marked the 29th edition of DanFish International, and both exhibitors and visitors can already save the date for 12–14 October 2027, when Aalborg will once again transform into the global hub of the fishing industry.