Edeson Online News: Origin Of Stockfish, How It Arrived In Nigeria, Plus Health Benefits

Saturday, 27 January 2018

Origin Of Stockfish, How It Arrived In Nigeria, Plus Health Benefits

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Stockfish is Norway's longest sustained export commodity. After sorting by quality, most of the stockfish is exported to Italy, Croatia and Nigeria.
In Norway and Iceland, the stockfish is mostly used as a snack. The Igbos in Nigeria call it ''Okporoko''; they use it in many soups (especially Ukazi soup) and eat it with fufu or garri. The major importers of "okporoko" in Nigeria are based in the town of Aba in Abia State.

Stockfish is a world class delicacy and an important part of Norway's cultural heritage. The climate in Northern Norway is perfect for creating stockfish - with temperatures of around 0°C and just the right balance of wind, sun and rain. A subtle change in weather conditions can affect the product. Stockfish from Norway is matured by nature itself. Between February and May, Northern Norway has the best climate in the world to dry fish.

In Onyingbo market, Lagos women carefully and joyously buy stockfish to prepare for their husbands or sweethearts. However, It was the Biafran civil war in Nigeria 50 years that really set the scene for stockfish to become a must-have ingredient in Nigerian cuisine.

In the course of three bloody years, more than a million people died – mostly from hunger. It was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, and churches and relief agencies from all over the world joined together to fly in emergency supplies. Norway’s contribution was stockfish.

It doesn’t need refrigeration, and it is full of protein and vitamins – perfect to combat kwashiorkor, the malnutrition that characterised the Biafran war. The single weapon against kwashiorkor was stockfish.

GUYS, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
DO YOU LIKE STOCK FISH?

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Edited by: Endy Edeson
Photo News Editor: Endy Edeson
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