BESST can be a Fish-y business! How Tiraholms Fisk (Sweden)spawned Aketun Fisk (Norway).
In 1998, during reindeer hunting in Fyresdal (Norway), Jonny Aketun, a local sheep farmer and forester, met Nisse Eckwall, a fish farmerfrom Hylte (Sweden). They talked about ways to develop farm businesses. Nisse persuaded Jonny to visit his family at Tiraholm to learn how he and his wife, Vicky, had converted their farm into a successful tourism business.
Jonny visited the Ekwalls in May 1999 and was inspired. On that trip he learned how Tiraholm Fisk had expanded theirlakeside farm into a business that made the most of tourism with a farm shop andfish restaurant. He decided to do something similar and started fishing that same summer.
During the next few years, Jonny and his wife, Ingebjorg, spent some time at Tiraholm learning about fish, fishing, nets and traps. They sewed their own environmentally friendly fish traps and learned some recipes too!
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Nisse and Vicky at Tiraholm |
Nisse working with his nets in Sweden |
Jonny fishing with his nets in Norway |
Ingeborg demonstrating fish recipes at the Great Peak District Fair in England |
Back home in Fyresdal, the Aketuns re-built a sheep shed to create a fish preparation room and smokery. Nisse helped them start their business. In August 2002, Aketun Fisk officially opened their fish business and fish shop. Vicky and Nisse attended the opening and brought along Kenneth Svensson from Hylte Kommun (the local authority).
At that time, Kenneth was developing an international tourism project in partnership with Ken Parker of the Peak District National Park Authority in England. These were the early days of the BESST project.
Having visited Aketun Fisk, and seeing the scope for a third area partner in the trans-national collaboration, Kenneth Svensson said: “Fyresdal must join the BESST project!” Three weeks later, representatives from Fyresdal were present at the first BESST meeting in Sweden.
