The Charvoz family has run Cannes Aquaculture on the French Mediterranean coast for generations and they say they have built up a good reputation for their professional approach to every aspect of the aquaculture business. In 1997, Denis Charvoz, manager and co-owner says he investigated the international market for graders and finally contacted Scanvaegt to order a ScanGrader.
"There was no doubt in my mind that the ScanGrader was unparalleled in its speed and accuracy. And since then, its performance each day has confirmed that I was right," says Mr Charvoz "It still operates at tremendous speed and with impressive accuracy. In fact, this -- our first grader -- processes two million fish per year."
Cannes Aquaculture operates several fish farming sites strategically placed in the Mediterranean. This ensures unhindered harvesting, regardless of the vagaries of currents and wind direction. One of these sites is placed near the coast of Corsica, where Cannes Aquaculture has established a processing plant which is also equipped with ScanGraders.
"We are pleased with the current trend towards consumers expressing a preference for high-quality products. This means that we will now double the quantity of fish processed at our Corsican plant from half a million to one million per year. The ScanGraders provides us with the capacity we need to do this," according to Bruno Nogerra, production manager.
"It is extremely important to us," Mr Nogerra explains, "that the graders are fast, easy to use and reliable. One of the most significant elements in our quality assurance policy is that the fish must be ready for shipment within two hours after being harvested at sea. Fulfilling this target simply requires the best and most reliable equipment all the way through the processing line, including the graders."
Scanvaegt IT solution provides full traceability
"About three years ago, having extended our business with more harvest sites, we saw a need for being able to control our sites centrally from our headquarters in Cannes," says Joëlle Crougneau, the company's IT manager. "We were very satisfied with our Scanvaegt grading equipment, so we felt it was only natural to consult them again. As a result, we now have an IT solution that has put us in a position to develop our quality assurance procedures still further with some very advanced traceability features. Because our graders are linked to the IT system, we can closely monitor production all the time, which is a great advantage. The production part of the system is now also directly connected to our invoicing system, which saves us a lot of time," he added.
"However, the main advantage is the track-and-trace instrument, which enables us to comply with the very strict quality labels devised by the Carrefour chain of supermarkets. Achieving this chain's Filiere Qualite classification proves that not only our products, but also our processing methods are superior," says Mr Crougneau.
He said "We have full traceability, right from harvest to outgoing shipment," Mr Nogerra adds, "Our advanced IT and labelling system provides box labels with all the necessary data. Naturally, these labels include the customer's name and address, but the code on the box label also provides information such as the species, batch number, day of harvest, day of shipment, fish size."
Integration with feeding system
The Scanvaegt IT solution is also integrated with another system that controls the feeding and raising of the fish -- right from hatching to harvest. This compatibility, combined with the data registered in the bar codes, enables Cannes Aquaculture rapidly to extract information about each and every fish -- within a matter of seconds. Cannes Aquaculture say this means they answer any queries about each individual fish such as increase in weight, cage location, cage number, nutrition and age.
