Is there no end to Chinese ingenuity? Salmon products supplied by Guide A-Way International Food for the recent Olympic Sailing Games held in Qingdao, in northern China, were processed in a plant situated on the fourth floor of a skyscraper in downtown Hong Kong.
The machinery for these products was provided by Baader of Germany, a leading manufacturer of fish processing equipment. Not surprisingly, Baader claims that this is the first time it has installed a salmon processing line in such a location in the whole of Asia (and probably throughout the world as salmon processing plants are usually built on the ground and away from urban areas.)
Although Baader apparently thought the idea “totally crazy” when it was first mooted by Calvin Kai, founder and executive director of Guide A-Way International Food at the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo in 2006, the equipment manufacturer decided to back the project and it came to fruition earlier this year.
Not only is the salmon processing plant sited in a very unusual location, it is also completely mechanised. This is very unusual in China where fish is usually processed by hand and seafood processing plants there often employ hundreds of workers who cut and trim fish with the utmost precision to meet exact specifications.
Andy Miller, managing director of Baader, claims that manual processing can compromise the quality of the finished product. “However, our solutions remedy this problem by minimising the amount of workers on the fish processing line, therefore minimising the chance of contamination. At the same time, we reduce the labour costs for the processor and create the safest working conditions for the line managers.”
The Guide A-Way International Food processing plant in Hong Kong receives chilled whole gutted farmed Atlantic salmon by air from Norway. At the plant the salmon are headed and filleted, and the fillets trimmed and graded, in a compact automatic line with only a few operatives present.
The company claims that its products exceed international quality standards and says it is now capable of offering “probably the freshest and safest Norwegian salmon in the whole region within a guaranteed delivery of 24 hours after harvesting”.
Based on its experience in setting up the Guide A-Way International Food salmon processing plant in Hong Kong, Baader believes that it now has a promising business model with a lot of potential for other Asian cities. Together with Guide A-Way Food International, Norwegian salmon farmer Norlaks and specialised logistics partners, it has developed a system that covers a great part of the chain from the farm to the consumer’s plate.
Fresh Norwegian salmon is a very good business in Asia with a lot of potential Baader says and adds that it is ready to support any investor not only with its technical know-how but also with the whole supply chain management. “Traditionally, we dispose of very close contacts to all leading Norwegian salmon farmers and top specialists for fresh food logistics.”
