The saltfish industry in Norway has long traditions in Norway. As it was impossible to bring the fresh catch to the market methods of conservation developed such as salting and drying. Allthough the logistics of today enables us to bring a large share of the catch fresh to the market salted fish stay popular in many regions of the world. Today salted and driedsalted fish (dried salted fish) are being exported to more than 200 countries with the following countries being the largest markets: Brasil, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Salting of fish – the process. During the curing process the salt drives out a substantial amount of water from the fish. Drying after salting implies that more water is removed from the flesh. The high content of salt implies that the fish is resistant to bacterial attacks and thus has a an extended shelf life*. The drying is done artifically in large dryers which enables to supervise production */ (the actual shelf life depends upon the conditions in which it is stored and on how much the fish has been dried, kindly see instructions on packaging) In Norway Salted fish is produced from the following species: cod, tusk/cusk, ling and saithe/pollock. The process of salting takes up to 21 days and in addition to removing a fair share of water also alter the molecular structure of the protein of the fish. Salted fish (full cured) contains roughly 25% protein, 20% salt and 55% water. When drying the fish the water content comes down further down. (The exact water content of the fish is depending upon market in which it is sold). Classification: When packing the fish for export the fish is sorted according to quality and size. The two most common classes of quality is superior and universal or primeira and sortido. Superior/Primeira being the highest quality. When sorting according to size weight of fish or length of fish are determinants When exported salted and driedsalted fish is packed in cartons (boxes; wooden/ or from cardboard) or straight on pallets.