Kvarøy teams up with Carlisle smoker for US launch
Norwegian salmon farmer Kvarøy Arctic has joined forces with a Carlisle born fish smoker to sell its smoked salmon in North America.
Family owned Kvarøy Arctic’s partner is Santa Barbara Smokehouse, founded by Tim Brown.
Brown has a long tradition smoking fish, practising family techniques passed down through the generations since he was 15 years old.
After moving to California from Cumbria in 1999, he opened a production facility in Santa Barbara in 2005.
Brown, whose brother Jonathan owns Grants Smoked Salmon in Maryport, runs one of the few smokehouses in the world that employs traditional methods of smoking, burning full logs of oak, applewood and other select woods in an open fire kiln, said Kvarøy Arctic in a press release.
The salmon is gently cured and then rope-hung before it is smoked using oak wood from the area at 82 degrees F.
Hanging the salmon up, rather than smoking it laid flat, makes it more tender and flavourful, said Kvarøy Arctic. The oak wood naturally enhances the cured fish with flavours of citrus and the scent of pine needles.
The salmon will go on sale at Whole Foods Market nationwide in the US from October 1.
Kvarøy Arctic has seen a steep increase in demand for its salmon in the American market, after launching in February this year.
According to a report by Aquaculture Magazine in June, it shipped twice the volume anticipated, despite the disruption to transport caused by the coronavirus.
