Atlas-Stord is constantly on the lookout for possible technological improvements. - In the last few decades the fish meal industry has experienced a very healthy development. Back in the sixties and seventies the industry concentrated primarily on extending the volume of the industrial plants, and the quality of the products and high utilization of the raw material was of less importance. The seas were full of fish, the environment was not really an issue, and the overall sentiment was more or less that quantity in itself was the highest quality.
Since then a lot has happened. The industry has had the oil crisis, the fishing quota and an intensified awareness of the environment. And as a direct consequence, our industry has slowly realised that size and quantity does not mean everything.
Parallel to this development, the last fifteen years have shown an enormous increase in the demand for fish meal in the area of aquaculture, primarily for salmon, trout, eel and shrimps. Today, farmed fish covers 10 % of the marked, and that number is expected to increase to around 30 % in the next ten years. Also, this development has contributed considerably to improve awareness on the meal quality in the sense of a better digestibility.
Drying dictates the quality
These tendencies are now becoming obvious, and today we see a clear focus on high product quality and optimal utilization of the raw fish. Although this new consciousness is partly based on a somewhat gloomy background, the development is still gratifying, simply because it guaranties our industry a future.
As a leading company on the marked, Atlas-Stord sees it as an obligation to be at the forefront of the development and the demands of the market. It is constantly works on new possible ways of optimising our technological solutions. One of the most sensitive stages in the making of fish meal is the drying process, and that is why further developments of drying methods is on top of our agenda.
Drying too slowly or a drying at too high a temperature for too long results in severe losses of proteins from the fish meal, which lowers the meal's digestibility. And since fish meal prices today are usually based on the nutritional value, a proper drying process is essential to assure profits in a highly competitive feeding stuff market.
In the last few years, Atlas-Stord's hot air drier called DynoJeT has been one of the absolute best dryers on the market offering an efficient and correct drying of high quality fish meal (LT quality). Today, the machine is implemented in factories in several countries such as Iceland, Norway and Alaska, and it represents crucial improvements compared to earlier plants.
