Why Stockfish Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food | Insider Business

almost everyone at this Market in Lagos Nigeria is here to buy stockfish source of protein it sells for 65 per kilogram seven times as much as other popular fish like croaker but no one in Nigeria can actually produce this unique dried Cod the fish comes from thousands of miles away in Norway where entire operations are dedicated to supplying the stockfish demand in Nigeria 99 .9 for Nigeria a full drying rack like this is worth over five hundred thousand dollars but because the supply from Norway is volatile prices fluctuate and sellers here in Nigeria have no control over how much fish gets here so how did stockfish First Connect these two economies and why is it so expensive we add our stock fish the stockfish is very important to Nigerian Cuisine because of the texture and flavor it gives to the dish especially when you want to have that local smell local Aroma to your food this is the fishing Village of henningsford in Lofoten Norway it's the ideal location for drying stockfish Cod migrates here at the start of the winter after it's caught the fish is grated by size and tied to be hung on racks heads and bodies separately the weather here is cold dry and reaches -10 to minus 15 degrees Celsius with wind chill it's so cold that there are no insects that could eat the fish but not cold enough to freeze the fish and it dries the fish so much that after a few weeks not even birds are interested in it anymore these racks have the capacity for as much as 4 000 metric tons of stockfish it's a way of conservation you know the yield is 23 so that means that you take out all the water it's a way of preserving the proteins exposed in the freezing wind it takes three months for COD to fully dry and become stockfish once that happens stockfish can be stored for up to three years making it an extremely valuable resource this is a longer method than using salt or artificial dryers which can dry cod in a week but the long wait pays off companies like Nora's buy fresh Cod for 52 Kroner a little less than five dollars per kilogram from Fishers once dried its bulk price is around 150 krona per kilogram in Nigeria it won't be sold in kilograms but in 30 kilogram bags this helps uh after two months approximately we can take it indoor after dry it and we press it into a 30 kilo Duty Bags and a ship in 40 feet containers and it all goes to Nigeria yes [Music] up until 60 years ago the word stockfish meant little to nothing in Nigeria but after the Nigerian civil war killed more than a million people mostly of starvation in the late 60s everything changed among the emergency supplies other countries sent to Nigeria to combat the famine Norway sent stockfish while Norwegians still eat it in restaurants now almost 100 percent of the stockfish produced in Norway is headed to Nigeria especially for home cooking in 2015 Nigeria imported 8.94 million dollars worth of stockfish from Norway I'm nowhere although I've challenged satisfactions I would say as much as we bring nonso is a stockfish dealer he's spent 20 years in the business going from retailing to dealing directly with Imports he sells his stockfish at the Otto white sand market in Lagos Nigeria comes in this first specie so it is a health aspect of it which also into three types as when I come with Joe I don't come without Joe has also type of different hairs so the museum where it is different same the prices are different so in that into that me to the other two types of the meats they are the one with our skin and the one who is King the long one now also is more expensive and even that body they are out of four different types the hot humid climate makes it impossible for stockfish to be dried here so importing it is the only option stockfish takes six weeks to get to nonso from Norway at 5 or 40 here is a ball 500 and above 300 000. then the main body the long wife is up to eight to nine hundred thousand here which is almost close to a thousand dollar above but those prices will not be the same tomorrow prices fluctuate depending on the season and because it's a more convenient Trade Currency the Norwegian kroner prices are set in U.S dollars they depend on the naira to dollar exchange rate of the day and even then there are two different exchange rates the official one set by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the black market rate Black Market rates although unofficial often give a better picture of the real market conditions most of us end up going for black materials in campini Q4 dollar for moons in Nigeria these team exchange rates are very different which one you pick to sell your stockfish can make or break a business like nonsosos challenge in every business in this country over 100. that's a lot of money so it makes the business difficult I want to make it expensive for consumers so it's a very big challenge but for now for a deal which isn't it I don't have much optional up to me but in our business in 2021 to encourage local fish farming the Nigerian government added stockfish to a list of over 40 items that importers have to buy with actual US dollars not naira converted into the same amount for nonso this made trading stockfish even more challenging 15 years ago it could be around seven eight million but today container of our selfish with words between 75 to 80 000 powers in current Black Market students results are bought for 17 million to 50 million challenges of assessing foreign the rise in energy costs has also made the operations in Norway more expensive to run and that also reflects on the final price at the market here about the people for which one they can afford so we're not there being a methods that instead of allowing to be there at this point when I started slashing so we move around the markets we see people slashing this coffee to a similar size that people can afford I really accomplished a time frame to how long I've been cooking stock fish I grew up knowing stock fish I learned to use stockfish also in cooking the local dishes the local Delicacies especially our soup and stews yeah he's a seafood or craft in all its beauty how lovely it looks first of all you feel with the eyes [Music] the burst of flavors the taste or combining to give this wonderful aroma back in Norway the Nigerian Market is too important to lose and it's it's funny because we are we have been trying to sell to other countries these products also and every time we we think we try to find we found a new market then we find out that it was really the Nigerians living in the Netherlands or England or the US so it's always the Nigerians who like this

Channel: Insider Business

Views: 1,061,656

Keywords: Insider Business, So Expensive Food, Stockfish, Protein, Cod, Seafood, Nigeria, Norway

Id: 1CHt6Yo6sVE

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023