Today is the first national Rainbow Salmon Day to be celebrated in Finland.
According to Jyrki Sukula, the best fish soup is a clear broth. Juha-Pekka Laakio Oy
Today, Thursday, November 2, marks the first National Rainbow Salmon Day.
The purpose of the day is to increase information about domestic fisheries and to awaken consumers to think about where the fish on their plates comes from.
“Unfortunately, the answer is that the fish comes from abroad,” says the influential chef, fish farming and processing entrepreneur behind Rainbow Salmon Day. Jyrki Sukula from Finnforel Oy.
As much as 80 percent of the fish eaten by Finns comes from abroad.
– It’s shameful in a country with 200,000 lakes and clean waters, Sukula growls.
According to him, Finnish fish farming is really advanced and produces, for example, better, cheaper and more ecological fish than imported Norwegian fish.
– There must be supply and volume of Finnish fish if we want to challenge Norwegian salmon.
Norway is known to be the leading country in the international fishing industry. However, Sukula points out that domestic rainbow trout and so-called Norwegian salmon have nothing in common.
– They are not even related to each other. Rainbow salmon grown in Finland is a real local food, and its meat is firmer than Norwegian salmon, Sukula continues.
However, he reminds us that making Finland’s fisheries self-sufficient does not depend only on consumer choices, but also requires political will.
In the summer of 2021, the government prepared the Domestic Fish Promotion Program, the goal of which is to increase the annual production of aquaculture to 50 million kilograms by 2035.
According to Sukula, the goal is ambitious and reaching it requires concessions to obtain fish farming permits. Fish farming is the only way to become self-sufficient, because lake fish alone will not fill the fish ponds of the stores and satisfy the consumer demand.
– Production must be continuous and of uniform quality, regardless of the weather and the season, Sukula states.
Did you know?
Rainbow salmon is a salmon fish belonging to the Pacific salmon family, which was originally brought to Finland and other parts of Europe from North America. Norwegian salmon, on the other hand, comes from the Atlantic Ocean.
Until 1965, rainbow trout was known in Finland as rainbow trout or trout.
However, President Urho Kekkonen decided to change the name to rainbow trout, because in his opinion the name was more suitable for the valuable fish, and it is shorter than the original name. On November 2, exactly 58 years have passed since the name was changed.
National Rainbow Salmon Day will be celebrated at Helsinki’s Narinkkator on Thursday, November 2, from 12 o’clock. Sukula is giving away rainbow trout soup, which is enough for the first 2,000.