A normal year, 1.4 million cans of sour herring leave the Swedish salteries. This year, due to the small herring harvest, only 800 000 cans have been produced, according to Ruben Madsen, president of the Sour Herring Academy, interviewed in Dagens Industri on August 17. Considering that the price is 40-50 SEK per can, this still means a turnover of maybe 40 million SEK. This is not as much as the estimate of the North Swedish vendace roe production – 100 million SEK, for 80 tonnes of roe (DI August 14).
However, with the sour herring sales, there is also a market for thin crisp bread, potatoes, onions, sour cream and tomatoes at a value of 350 SEK to go with each can – a total of 320 million SEK for the fish parties. And then we haven’t even counted the beer and booze….
Picture from the Sour Herring Academy.
Earthsea 