Last weekend Westmann Islands fishing and processing company Vinnslustöðin hf. í Vestmannaeyjum (VSV) opened its doors and more than four hundred visitors came to look over the new pelagic production facility.
Several of the refrigeration rooms at the plant were used for displays and exhibitions during the day, including VSV subsidiaries Marhólmar and Idunn Seafoods which took the opportunity to show what they do best in supplying overseas markets with specialist production.
The new pelagic production facility centres around blast-freezing technology rather than plate freezing that is the accepted method in Iceland. VSV’s management took a long, hard look at the way production has changed in Norway, where blast-freezing is the usual method for pelagic production, and the Asian market that is prepared to pay higher prices for blast-frozen fish.
Guðmundur Örn Gunnarsson, chairman of the VSV board, commented in his speech that the investment in the new production facility totals ISK1300 million.
“In every comparable processing plant in Iceland, both new and old, plate freezers are used. We decided to go the other way and chose blast freezers, and we’re going against the flow here in Iceland. The production processes with blast freezing is technically more simple and requires less equipment than plate freezers,” he said.
“We took the time to study the options and what made our minds up were that the messages from the market, the buyers of our products, were very clear, especially the important Asian market. The conclusion was that we would get more for our fish from blast freezing than from the traditional method of plate freezing because blast freezers preserve a higher quality. We listened to our customers and overseas advisers.”
VSV’s new production facility previously had a capacity of 250 tonnes of frozen pelagic species per 24 hours. This has now been boosted to 420 tonnes and with a highly automated system in place, the factory is expected to be able to run with only 15 staff on each shift.
