The Baltic states move to tubs

Sigurdur Ástvaldsson, area sales manager, also says China has banned wooden pallets and that the Japanese and European authorities are thinking about banning them as well. "Anyway", he said, "Some people do not want to use pallets when sending the fish freight abroad as they think they may not see the pallet ever again. We need to try and develop a cheaper, single-use pallet." He says that the lifetime of a pallet container can be up to 10 years. Borgarplast is also opening up new sales in the cheese industry.

He stresses how important good insulation is and explained that in the case of one tuna tub sent from the Philippines to Europe by plane, "Due to the higher price that the fish [wins by] being kept fresher in the tubs, [the cost of the tub] paid for itself on the second trip," he said.

He says that all trawlers in Iceland are using pallet containers because they know that the fish keeps fresher in these kind of tubs and end up being worth more money on the market.

He says that when selling tubs abroad they need to explain to new customers the properties of the tubs.

In many countries they are still using wooden boxes and companies and fishermen do not get as much money for fish transported in that way. "In some African countries, they know that fish is worth a lot of money in Europe and they can get more money from their fish if they sell it fresh, by transporting in tubs," he told World Fishing.