Swedes consume a record amount of fish: Over 10 kilo fish (over 22 lbs) per person last year, according to fresh statistics. Salmon is still the favorite fish to eat (Swedes consume over 6.6 lbs salmon per person and year) but codfish is coming back after years of alerts of overfishing. It’s the Norwegian Trade Council that has analyzed just how much fish Swedes eat.

After oil, fish is Norway’s most important export product and Norwegian fish is the fish that Swedes eat the most. “Almost 80% of all fish sold in Sweden is Norwegian. Almost all salmon sold in Sweden is Norwegian, but also a great deal of the fresh codfish,” says Line Kjelstrup, CEO of the Norwegian Trade Council for fish in Sweden. She continues to explain that after years of consumers not wanting to buy codfish because of the risk of overfishing, they are now buying again.

Fish in all honor; Swedes still prefer meat: we eat about 80 kilos (176 lbs) of meat per person and year, and young people are increasing their meat eating. “The message that fish is healthy has seeped through, it’s become trendy to eat healthy – junk food is definitely out,” says Kjelstrup.

For the dinner table, a recipe developed for us by New York based chef Morten Sohlberg, Baked cod with lemongrass and lingonberries served with fingerling potatoes

Lightly salted cod fillets with beetroot rösti and horseradish cream

The cod fishing center is in the Lofoten area in Norway. If you haven't seen it before, visit our story for Nordic Reach Magazine and travel editor Bo Zaunders's wonderful story, truly from a different world - In Cod we trust: A Lofoten Encounter