Your tinned fish obsession is helping resurrect a lost industry

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Once upon a time, the states had a thriving tinned fish market. Like a lot of U.S. manufacturing though, that's been lost. But sardines are having a moment right now and that may help a growing effort to resurrect this lost industry.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.8	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.7	I'm Waylon Wong.
0:15.0	And fresh from Portugal, I am joined by producer and reporter Adjua Jimma Brempong.
0:20.0	Hi, Waylon.
0:21.0	Hello, and you are here to talk about something that's all over my feeds right now, sardines.
0:26.4	Happy Sardine Girl Summer to all who celebrate.
0:29.2	Oh, I am celebrating. I've been celebrating.
0:31.5	I'll never stop celebrating.
0:32.8	But why are there tinned fish prints on literally everything from, you know, dishware at Target to viral handbags?
0:41.6	I feel like there's probably a lot of reasons, like it's cheap protein in the age of macros and also recession indicators.
0:48.5	Plus, like, there's good packaging design.
0:50.8	And I think just like after years of being told that they were stinky and gross, Americans are finally viving again.
0:58.0	They're realizing how delicious sardines are over rice or on toast.
1:02.6	I have a traitor Joe's tote bag that literally the print on it is a recipe for sardine toast.
1:10.2	I love this for you.
1:12.1	And, you know, I'm not the only one out there who is enjoying all of this tin fish.
1:17.3	The canned fish market is on the rise.
1:20.1	Last year, it was more than a $30 billion industry globally.
1:24.3	But when I think of fancy tin fish, I really do think of European sardines.
1:29.2	Which is understandable, but we used to have a thriving domestic tinfish market too. And like a lot of
1:35.6	U.S. manufacturing, honestly, that's been lost. Bringing it back will be a bit of a lift. But there's
	...

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