Caribbean

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. In Dominican Republic live about 10 millions inhabitants, and the country lives mainly on tourism. The saltfish is consumed by most people and annual import is about 16,000 MT from Norway. The dominicans have a saying: 'with one pound of saltfish you can feed more people than with 3 pounds of chicken.' The fish is desalted and cooked together with a lot of rice and one pound can feed a whole family. The fish is sold dry salted in supermarkets, colmados (small corner stores) and also exported by trucks to the neighboring country of Haiti. There are many different ways of preparing the bacalao and Dominicans invent and find new ways all the time. The 6 weeks before Easter is the time when most of the dried salted fish is consumed, but throughout the year this fish is on the table of all families.  

Jamaica

The Jamaicans are one of the largest consumers of dried salted fish (called only Saltfish by Jamaicans) per capita in the world with its approximate 3 milllion inhabitants. The annual import of Saltfish from Norway is about 5,700 MT. Jamaicans eat saltfish a little more than twice a week on average, and their national dish is Saltfish and Ackee. Because of its delicious taste and high nutritional value, saltfish is the second most popular dish at every meal.

Trinidad & Tobago

 The two islands have about 1,3 million inhabitants and import annualy about 770 MT of dried salted saithe from Norway.

Saltfish Buljol is a typical Trini dish made of salted fish, with tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers, onions and oil.

The dish is normally enjoyed as breakfast when it is placed into a bread called bake and eaten as a sandwich.

Guadeloupe/Martinique

The French islands Martinique and Guadeloupe are buying dried salted fish on a regular basis and import about 1.250 MT annualy from Norway.

Dried salted Saithe and Ling are sold in the new and modern supermarkets, and the fish is either sold as whole fish or ready prepared consumer packages from Norway. The islands have about 800.000 inhabitants and the seafood from Norway is appreciated.