Marel has hosted its third Whitefish ShowHow conference bringing together global processors of both wild and farmed whitefish to discuss insight into the future direction of the industry.
The event was attended by more than 150 people from 30 countries who came to Copenhagen to experience demonstrations of industry-leading products such as the FleXicut line with packing robots.
Leif Inge Karlsen, founder and former director of Lerøy Hydrotech, explained how “the whitefish industry has now started to copy the salmon industry.”
He compared this to a similar trend some 60 years ago when the dried fish producers competed with fresh fish producers in a similar way.
“The whitefish industry must increase quality and supply processing plants not just on a seasonal basis, but must also catch during other months to supply the market,” he said.
Hi-tech demos
Attendees to the conference could visit the demo hall where they could experience hands-on Marel’s vision to create a virtually hands-free process throughout production.
Karin Verstraaten, DemoCenter Food Technologist at Marel Further Processing, explained that fish processors coming to the showhow sometimes aren’t even aware that Marel offers coating, breading, marinating, forming and cooking equipment.
“There’s a lot of potential for fish processors to move into the production of value-added fish and seafood products,” she said.
While demonstrations were running, attendees could keep track of all the data in the Innova Food Processing Software office in the demo hall.
Data is increasingly valuable in today’s hi-tech processing environment and the ability to track and analyse data is key to fish processors being competitive.
