Fishing for cod in the Faroe Bank Channel, an area about 45 miles southwest of Suðuroy, the most southerly island of the Faroe Islands, was banned almost 20 years ago due to overfishing.
As fishing operations shuttered, a Faroese delicacy disappeared with it: bacalao made specifically with Faroe Bank cod.
Nearly 20 years later, stocks in the area have recovered enough to open up some fishing opportunities, and arguably nobody is more ready to take advantage of the moment than Jógvan Gregersen.
Gregersen is the CEO of Faroese fish-processing firm Vaðhorn, and his family has been salting cod in the Faroe Islands for decades. His grandfather started salting fish in the 1950s and founded a company focused on the practice that is still owned by Gregersen's cousins.
With time, Vaðhorn has also developed into a family endeavor. Gregersen’s brother-in-law, Faroese soccer legend Jens Martin Knudsen, holds a majority of the shares in Vaðhorn, and his son, Bergur, also works at the firm.
Vaðhorn has become a specialist in bacalao and uses cod caught in the Faroe Islands or imported from Iceland or Norway for its salted fish products.
However, the firm’s customers have not forgotten about the taste of bacalao made using Faroe Bank cod, even though it was off the market for more than a decade...
