Norwegian seafood representative gets taste of Jamaica’s salt fish market

Orjan Olsen wore a quizzical look on his face as he was handed a quarter-pound of salt salt fishby shopkeeper Nadine Leslie in Maverley, St Andrew on Friday.

Olsen, head of the Caribbean Markets for the Norwegian Seafood Council, was in the inner-city community as part of a tour intended to get a better understanding of the local market. The quarter-pound of salt fish he purchased from Leslie cost him $200, and he was a bit taken aback by the small portion he received.

"Wow! I didn't know they sold salt fish this small," Olsen remarked.

He then asked Leslie how many people such a small piece could feed. She explained that a quarter-pound of salt fish can feed an entire family, noting that persons mix it with other foods such as vegetables, beans and also ackee to make sumptuous meals.

"We call this the garrison, suh sometimes when a person buy a pound a salt fish that's a lot. But when somebody buy a quarter-pound, that's the regular," she said.

Olsen's visit saw him meeting with small business operators and wholesalers as he sought to get an understanding of how salt fish is sold and prepared in Jamaica. He was given samples of local dishes, such as ackee and salt fish, callaloo and salt fish and cabbage and salt fish, which were prepared by local cooks.

"We want to work together with the Jamaicans to talk about, educate them about the salt fish and see if we can learn something about each other; so that's why we are here now, and that's why we plan to come here much more often in the time to come," Olsen said.

He told THE STAR that Jamaica has been importing salt fish from Norway since the 1950s, and that an average 5,000 tons of salt fish is imported from the Nordic sate each year.

In Maverley, Leslie and Olsen discussed a variety of issues relating to salt fish, including availability and quality. On the matter of quality, the business operator said that there have been some challenges in recent times.

"Yuh can see seh it drop by far," she said about the quality. "It thin and them easily break up, nuh care how yuh just buy the box," Leslie said.

She also said that there are times that the salt fish is too dry, making it more difficult to sell.

"If it drier it a guh more hard to sell because dem a guh seh, 'Nadine, wah kind a dry-up salt fish dis? Mi nuh wah the dry-up salt fish,'" she related.

"If it more moist them a guh seh, 'Yeah man, mi like this', and yuh want to give yuh customers the best," Leslie added.

She also explained to Olsen that what she desires is to see more moisture in the salt fish, but not to the point where it becomes extremely heavy.

"It nuh really have enough moisture like before, suh it kinda harder on we to sustain it to sell our customers, suh we want it more mild. We nuh want it too 'wet wet', because the wetter, the heavier; suh if it wet, we a guh get less," Leslie explained.