Processing companies in the North Atlantic are facing stiff competition from countries with abundant, low-cost labour. World Fishing turned to Lá¡rus Ásgeirsson, senior director of sales and marketing at Marel Iceland, a major processing machinery supplier, to see how companies can better adapt to such challenges. "Marel is working with the industry to help it to adapt to a situation where the only way to compete is by reducing labour costs through automation and, last but not least, to increase the yield." He says that in China, where labour costs are very low, processing companies can obtain a higher yield than those in the North Atlantic.
They hand pick the bones. They can spend more time on this. Here, companies look at how many kilograms per man-hour is used. In China they don't look at that but the yield. With the technology we are developing, we are hoping to bring factories' use of yield very close to the yield used by the Chinese processors while at the same time reducing labour costs." One of Marel's main development projects has been pin-bone removal in white fish, under a contract with a group of Norwegian fishing and fish-processing companies. The equipment will also be able to quality-scan fillets for bones. The aim is to increase utilisation in fillet processing and, therefore, value, while reducing labour costs. Greater automation should mean less handling and a corresponding increase in quality and so sale price.
Lá¡rus Ásgeirsson says their state-of-the-art technology involves several stages. First, the pin bones will be removed from the fish. The fillets would then be scanned for any remaining bones, with x-rays pinpointing the bone. The fillets either go for processing or final bone removal.
Marel has sold its first commercial pinbone removal and x-ray machines to Samherji in Dalvik (Iceland), which has been a development partner. Other main changes in the trend of the processing are towards portioning and better handling of the fish.
Ásgeirsson also expects to see a growth in the fish supply coming from fish farming. "According to an FAO report, assuming the same growth of consumption of fish, the only way to meet the demand will be through aquaculture," he said. Marel's subsidiary, Carnitech from Denmark is already specialised in machines for the salmon industry.
