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THE 10 regional winners from the UK Independent Takeaway Fish & Chip Shop of the Year competition have just returned from a highly successful visit to Norway where they learned about sustainable fishing and, at the same time, educated the Norwegians about Britain's favourite takeaway dish.
The purpose of the visit, organised by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council, was to tell the group about sustainable harvesting of fish and the production of high grade cod and haddock fillets from Norwegian line vessels and factory trawler - fillets which will probably be ending up in their friers back home.
Britons eat over 300 million portions of fish and chips a year and Norway is hoping to increase its supply of cod and haddock to this important market. The fish friers visited the factory trawler Ramos, which had just discharged its catch from its last trip, where they met the captain Egil Skarbųvik who told them about the rich sustainable fish stocks in the Barents Sea and about the rapid freezing of his catch. The fleet manager Atle Vardtal then took them through the sophisticated production process on board the vessel.
Back in the port of Alesund the visitors enjoyed a gala dinner along with 40 British and Norwegian guests in which seafood was prominent on the menu.
Last week Norway announced record October exports of cod and haddock. The Norwegian Seafood Export Council is focusing its latest sales drive on Britain's 11,000 fish and chip shops.
The campaign, entitled, FISK.FųREVER with sustainable fishing at its heart, believes that with over half the UK population visiting fried fish shops at least once a month friers are a key route to influencing the consumer on the quality and sustainability of Norwegian fish.
The final of the Fish and Chip Shop competition will be held in London on January 17th next year.
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