Cultivated Arctic Char from the Lapland Wilderness

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has recently given a red light in its consumer guide to buying and eating wild-caught trout and char from mountain lakes. The WWF’s consumer guide is a recommendation that is voluntary to follow and should not really be called red-listing at all. Both researchers and experts have spoken out against this red light for trout/char and the fact that the assessment is based simply on the lack of data on the populations in the different lakes. “Trout and char are not threatened species,” says Pär Byström, for example, at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Geosciences at Umeå University.

Those who want to eat char are instead recommended by the WWF to eat farmed fish. They have given the green light to char farmed in Iceland and trout from Austria, and Swedish farmed char should also have been included in this category as the farming techniques and the feed the fish eat do not differ. Unfortunately, Swedish farmed char in land-based farming is not mentioned at all in the guide.

In Sweden, we need to eat more fish, both wild-caught and locally farmed, and also increase our self-sufficiency. It is climate-smart, healthy and wise!

Umlax has initiated a dialogue with the WWF to correct this mistake and would like to clarify that there are very good arguments for eating Swedish farmed char with a clear conscience.

• Swedish farmed char is produced in clean and clear mountain lakes without negative environmental effects.
• Swedish farmed char involves short transportation distances.
• The use of antibiotics in Swedish aquaculture is extremely low.
• Swedish food production, which we follow, maintains a recognized high standard.
• Swedish farmed char contributes to jobs in Sweden, especially in the inland areas of Norrland.
• Char is considered a very nutritious fish due to its high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, i.e., Omega-3 fats.