Norway, Salmon and Sushi
Project Japan
Project Japan was led by the former Fisheries Minister Thor Listau, and in 1985 it took a Norwegian delegation to Tokyo to persuade Japan to put raw Norwegian salmon on sushi. Japan at the time did not use salmon that way. The campaign worked to an extent nobody sensible would have predicted: exports went from two tonnes in 1980 to over forty-five thousand tonnes a year twenty years later.
Where that leaves the fish today
Roughly thirty per cent of Norwegian salmon now becomes sushi, and Norway holds about fifty-three per cent of the global salmon market across a hundred and thirteen countries. The salmon you eat raw in Tokyo, London or Bergen is part of a trade that was invented inside living memory.
What Bergen actually does with fish
The older Bergen techniques are all about preservation, not rawness: cod cured in salt and sugar and pressed, cod air-dried with no salt at all, cod tails smoked, saithe bones boiled into a soup and seasoned with vinegar and sugar. That is the thousand-year tradition here. Raw salmon is the forty-year one. Bergen seafood. Stockfish and the trade.
Neither of these is more authentic than the other — but if you want the food that actually shaped this city, order the soup or the pressed cod before you order the sashimi.
The walk that covers the older techniques
Thirteen tastings in three and a half hours across five cafés and restaurants, including fresh seasonal seafood, traditional sardines and seasonal meat and fish at Fløirestauranten on Mount Fløyen. Capped at eight people and wheelchair accessible. The listing is marked not suitable for vegans or vegetarians, and vegetarian and vegan options are available with 24 hours’ notice on an adjusted offering. Both halves of that are true and you need the second one before you book.
Frequently asked questions
Do Norwegians eat raw salmon?
They do now, but they did not historically. Eating salmon raw is a recent habit in Norway, and it grew out of an export campaign rather than a domestic tradition.
How did Norwegian salmon end up on sushi?
Through Project Japan, a campaign led by the former Fisheries Minister Thor Listau, which took a Norwegian delegation to Tokyo in 1985 to persuade Japan to use raw Norwegian salmon on sushi. Exports went from two tonnes in 1980 to over forty-five thousand tonnes a year twenty years later.
How much of the world’s salmon is Norwegian?
Norway holds about fifty-three per cent of the global salmon market, selling into a hundred and thirteen countries, and roughly thirty per cent of Norwegian salmon becomes sushi.