Eurofish Magazine 2 2010

www.eurofishmagazine.com

ISSN 1868-5943 April 2 / 2010 C 44346

EUROFISH

MAGAZINE New distribution model Print plus

15,000 electronic copies

Cover Story Morpol / Laschinger

Entry into the frozen portions segment Norway: Super chilled cod from Stamsund Aquaculture: Frozen cobia loins to launch at ESE Processing: Contract packaging for the seafood industry FISH INFO network

In this issue

Quality rather than quantity characterises Bremen’s Fish International Fish International, Bremen – Despite the lower turnout in terms of exhibitors and visitors at this year’s Fish International compared with two years ago, the overall feeling among participants was that the event was a success. Less thronged halls meant that substantial discussions were possible between potential partners, there was no lack of innovative new products, and ultimately, for anybody interested in the German market for fish and seafood Fish International is the place to be. No other event offers the depth of retail, gastronomy, and grocery in Germany that can be found at Bremen. However, the fair had lost some of its international flavour with smaller country pavilions and fewer representatives from important supplier countries like Poland, Denmark and Norway. Read more on page 16.

Ukraine – The Ukraine was a key player in the Soviet fisheries playing a major role in all the sectors of the industry. Since the break up of the Soviet Union catches in the Ukraine have fallen substantially.

Total catches including those by the distant water fleet, from the Azov and Black Sea basins and from inland fishing have remained broadly stable over the five years from 2004 to 2008. Fish consumption though lower than the EU average has been increasing steadily since the Ukraine became independent and stands at about 18 kg per capita (2008). Imports of fish and seafood have grown from less than 3,000 tonnes in 2004 to 38,000 tonnes in 2008 and now exceed domestic production. Read more on page 40.

Norway – Sustainable fishing practices in Norway mean that stocks are healthy and that fishing companies can fish strategically, staggering their catches over the year and preventing large fluctuations in landings. This in turn allows the efficient utilisation of processing capacities, rapid throughput and just-in-time delivery to customers. Aker Seafoods, one of the biggest fishing and processing companies in Norway, exports over half of all Norwegian fresh cod products. This is a major feat considering the delicacy of the product, its short shelf life and that the company’s markets are way to the south of the European continent. At Aker Seafoods the logistics of landing, processing and shipping have evolved into a fine art. But modern processing technology is also doing its bit. Read more on page 62.

Morpol / Laschinger – The fish processing industry in Morpol today is one of the most efficient smokehouses in the world processing 70,000 tonnes of fish a year into a variety of products. Cold smoked Atlantic salmon dominates the production, but the company is seeing rapid increases in wild salmon, fresh fillets, and speciality products. One of the company’s main markets is Germany where in collaboration with retailers the range of the company’s products has multiplied several times over the last decade.

With its emphasis on quality, price and convenience the company has seen constant growth for several years. Future expansion plans are to be funded by going public with a listing on the Oslo stock exchange.

Read more on page 12.

Aquaculture – Cobia is a popular fish in Asia where it is valued for the texture and the taste of its white flesh. According to the FAO cobia is farmed primarily in China where production has increased from 14,500 to 23,500 tonnes between 2004 and 2008. A further 9,000 tonnes were caught in the wild, again mainly in Asia. Smaller volumes are also cultured in Taiwan. This year a Norwegian company, Marine Farms, plans to launch a new product, frozen cobia loins, at the European seafood Exposition in Brussels. The fish are being farmed at sites in Viet Nam and Belize and current volumes are relatively modest at 1,000-1,500 tonnes. At the Viet Nam site production is expected to increase rapidly over the next couple of years reaching 4,000 tonnes in five years time. Read more on page 50. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

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Contents

Eurofish around

Fair Review NASF

28 North Atlantic Seafood Forum Recession impacts industry less than expected

62 Aker Seafoods in Stamsund offers ‘super chilled’ cod Fresh fillets keep for up to two days longer

Fair Review Bremen

16 12th Fish International remains the driving force for the German fish industry Bremen fish trade fair a success despite lower attendance level

22 Seafood + Technology News 2010

24 Forum on sustainability and proactive risk management Ways and means to effective food safety

26 Walk-in production line for smoked fish Technology up close

News

6 International News

Aquaculture

50 Cobia farming in Vietnam Production to grow rapidly at Marine Farms

Cover Story

12 Morpol / Laschinger expands business and plans to go public Entry into the frozen portions segment

Processing

52 Deepchill variable state ice Ice slurry is preserving product freshness around the world

53 Jens Möller Products produces vegetable alternative to fish roe Caviar imitation from seaweed

Pathogen Combat

4

46 Pathogen Combat: Reducing food-borne diseases in Europe Rapid and meaningful detection methods Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

www.eurofishmagazine.com

the world

Contents Ukraine

40 The Ukrainian fishery industry Steep increase in seafood imports

44 Ukrmoreprodukt A market for sushi built from scratch

Fair Review India Int. Seafood Show

32 India International Seafood Show 2010 From frozen blocks to greater value addition

34 Indian Seafood Trends 2010

Worldwide Fish News Canada

page 52

Denmark

page 10, 53

Germany

page

India

page 32

Latvia

page 6, 10

Norway

page 28, 62

Poland

page 12

Romania

page 6

Spain

page 6

Research

Thailand

page 11

Ukraine

page 40

Vietnam

page 50

6, 16, 54, 56

54 ISO certification for Lenk Frozen Foods in Thailand Prefried products to spark new trend

Service

65 Diary Dates

56 Best Harvest provides services for food industry Co-packer with six packaging lines plus trouble shooting

66 Imprint

66 List of Advertisers

60 Reusing cleaned wastewater Reducing the environmental impact of the fish processing industry

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

5

[ international news ] Germany: Multivac traysealers now certified by Cryovac Mirabella SealedAir-Cryovac has patented the Cryovac Mirabella system.

This offers a slimline packaging solution, with an effect similar to conventional MAP protective gas packaging, and a reduction in the packaging height of up to 40%. The Mirabella film, however, requires

film stick together, with the result that the cushion of air provided by the Mirabella film will be too small to store sufficient oxygen. Multivac traysealers have now passed the first stage of the certification process for use with the Cryovac Mirabella system. The machines,

to EUR30,000 to develop and present a proposal. The projects themselves can have a value of EUR6-7m. Local governments are eligible for 100% financing while

private partnerships are entitled to 50%. Proposals will be evaluated by the end of the year so that implementation can commence in 2011.

Romania: Second tranche of financial assistance disbursed The EU disbursed a further EUR1 billion to Romania in March following a payment of EUR1.5bn in July 2009. The money is part of a EUR5bn loan that Romania negotiated in May 2009 under the Commission’s Balance of Payments programme.

EU financial assistance aims at helping countries to withstand short-term liquidity problems and restore investor confidence,

and correcting large imbalances in their economies. Under the agreement Romania can borrow EUR5bn if it complies with certain conditions including introducing structural reforms and improving financial supervision. For future instalments of the loan to be paid out Romania will have to continue to take the necessary measures that were specified in the agreement.

Photo: Multivac

Latvia: Cabinet approves funds for fisheries research, dissemination Stefan Scheibel, Product Manager Traysealers at Multivac says that the Multivac traysealers can now also process SealedAir-Cryovac Mirabella films.

a highly sophisticated die in the packaging machine, because it consists of two layers which must be shrunk with precision control. If the die, which heats the film to the correct shrink temperature, is not heated sufficiently, the film creases, detracting from the appearance of the pack and putting off the consumer. Conversely, if the die becomes too hot, the two layers of

which are fitted with a new die system, seal trays just as efficiently as the conventional models. And the system is also compatible with previous models. The older T 350 and T 400 traysealer models can be fitted with retrofit kits for processing Mirabella® film; the new T 700 traysealer does not require retrofitting.

Tests for the top of the range T 800 model have just begun.

Romania: European Fisheries Fund money to improve living standards EUR100m from the EU is available for the development of alternative economic activities in fishing communities. The money is available under Axis 4 of the European Fisheries Fund and can be accessed by local communities 6

and consortia with local partners with proposals to improve living standards and prevent the migration of inhabitants. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mihail Dumitru says that the partnerships can receive up

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

The Latvian cabinet has approved EUR 291,249 (Ls 204,457) from the state budget to support Latvian fisheries, reports the Latvian Fisheries Marketing and Information Centre. The funds will finance scientific research on fisheries, fish resources, their protection, and restocking in public waters. The funds will also

be available for dissemination to keep the public informed about the outcomes of the research.

The funds will also provide money for participation in international activities, conferences and trainings connected with fish resource researches, sustainable use of fish resources, restocking and ­protection.

Spain: Fishing vessel beats off pirate attack A Spanish fishing vessel, the Txori Argi, fought off an attack by pirates off the Seychelles with no injuries to the crew or damage to the vessel reports Ians/Efe. Skiffs and a mother ship with pirates was spotted by the fishing boat crew some 80 nautical miles off Mahe, the largest island in the Seychelles archipelago. The pirates chased the fishing vessel prompting security officers aboard to fire a volley of shots. Undeterred the

pirates continued the chase until they were about a kilometer away when a second salvo forced them to reconsider. No shots were fired at the fishing vessel by the pirates.

The crew of the Txori Argi comprised 30 sailors and four armed security officers. Vessel owners with boats fishing in the Indian Ocean are authorised to place armed security guards on board to fend off attacks by pirates ­operating in the area. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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[ international news ] Eurofish Governing Council welcomes Polish ratification of Eurofish agreement The 9th Session of the Governing Council of Eurofish took place on 28-29 January 2010 at the Eurofish office in Copenhagen. The Governing Council is the annual meeting of the representatives of the countries that own Eurofish. Currently these are Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. It also includes representatives from countries that may join the organisation in the future, and from the FAO, the driving force behind the creation of Eurofish. The meeting reviews the activities undertaken over the past year, decides on the work programme of the year to come, discusses budgetary issues, and makes proposals to deepen the relationship

highlights of 2009 was the ratification of the Eurofish Agreement by the Polish Parliament. Poland will become the 13th Eurofish member country when the Polish President signs the document.

The 9th Eurofish Governing Council was attended by 19 representatives from 15 European countries and the FAO.

between the organisation and its member countries.

Eurofish staff presented the Governing Council with a summary

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Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

of the activities that had taken place in 2009 dividing them into dissemination, promotion, and project activities and showing the results and outcomes. One of the

The review gave the Council an updated look into how the organisation serves its member countries and is developing its role as a regional intergovernmental organisation for post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture.

The work programme for 2010 was presented and debated at length with several suggestions from the representatives present at the meeting. The Governing Council apart from being an important management procedure

[ international news ] is also a useful networking opportunity – for the representatives amongst themselves, but also for Eurofish. After one

and a half days the meeting concluded with several decisions that will help the ­organisation carry out its mandate.

FAO to build databank of global codes of practice in aquaculture The FAO Aquaculture Service is calling for contributions to the development of a worldwide overview and databank of Codes of Practice, Codes of Conduct, Best (Better) Management Practices, Technical Guidelines, and similar policies, in aquaculture. The Service has requested all those interested in the promotion of sustainable aquaculture development to inform FAO of the existence of COP/BMP documents in their countries or regions. In particular, all aquaculture producer associations and farmer organizations are encouraged to send to FAO their Codes of Practice, Codes of Conduct, Best (Better) Man-

agement Practices, Technical Guidelines, and related documents. COPs/ BMPs in aquaculture with national and international organizations are also important and should also be contributed.

These documents can be sent to FAO as hard copies or electronically, or, if available online, by informing FAO of the relevant website, internet link, or URL. More information about this initiative is available at FAO’s aquaculture gateway page: ftp://ftp.fao.org/FI/DOCUMENT/ aquaculture/COPBMP/call.pdf or from Mr Uwe Barg, Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture), uwe.barg@fao.org, or telephone +39 06 57053454.

Qatar: Ban on trade in bluefin tuna rejected A decision from an official FAO panel that buefin tuna met the criteria qualifying it for a trade ban was insufficient to pass a proposal to ban the international trade in bluefin tuna. At the three-yearly meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in Doha, Quatar, the proposal was rejected after a vote where 68 delegates were against, 20 in favour, and 30 abstained. The United States, which strongly supported the ban, said that the vote “…was a setback for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, but we will keep fighting to ensure that the fishery is managed sustainably…” A compromise amendment tabled by Spain speaking for the EU that would let the species be delisted in the future was also rejected. The result is good news for Japan, which consumes 75% of the bluefin tuna catch, and which has been lobbying against a ban ever since it was proposed, but is less fortunate for tuna stocks which suffer from a combination of poor management and illegal fishing and whose levels have fallen to 15% of their historical peak. The onus is now on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic ­Tunas (ICCAT) to manage the fishery in a sustainable manner.

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Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

9

[ international news ] Denmark: Consumption of fish increases Danish consumption of fish has increased from 133 g a week in 2002 to 154 g a week in 2008, an increase of over 15%, reports a new study. Adults consume on average 16 g of fish a day while children in the 10-17 year age bracket consume only 7 g and those in the 4-10 year age group eat 8 g a day.

The study was conducted by the National Food Institute for the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and covered fresh, frozen and smoked fish, conserves, and shellfish. Fish is an important source of certain fatty acids as well as of vitamin D and selenium. Although the survey showed an increase in fish consumption among Danes the amount consumed is still well below official recommendations which stand at 200-300 g a week corresponding to 30-40 g a day. The average adult consumption of 16 g a day corresponds to a fish fillet a week.

The low levels of fish consumption is among the reasons for the low levels of vitamin D in the diet. The study was based upon a group of 4,500 people between 4 and 75 years who over the course of a week registered what they ate. The data was collected between 2003 and 2008 and similar studies have been conducted in 1985, 1995 and 2000-2002.

Latvia: Illegal cod haul left to the owner To increase the valuable but still vulnerable cod population countries around the Baltic Sea regularly develop different protection programs, that limit its catch and promise heavy penalties for poachers. However Latvia’s stand towards cod poachers seem to be ambiguous, reports the Latvian Fisheries Marketing and Information Centre.

A seven-ton haul of cod, which was captured at the beginning of the February at the port of Liepaja, has not been confiscated, but left for the owner of the ship to use.

The State Environmental Service (SES) assumes that the haul is possibly already sold. The Service declares that it has not enough resources to take the haul away, meanwhile the fishermen point

that inspectors are lazy as they do not get any bonuses anymore.

According to Felikss Klagišs of the State Environmental Service, illegally caught cod hauls are not a rarity, but seven tons is a big catch. The crew declared that they had not caught the fish – they just had it transferred. However, this is also forbidden. It was impossible to contact the owner of the ship due to his vacation leave. At the moment the company Baltreids, that owns the vessel, can be fined LVL200 to 3000 (EUR285 – 4285), although the value of the catch can reach upto LVL10,000 (EUR14,285). The SES says they have been insisting on an increase in penalties for several years already, but the changes have stuck in the Ministry of Justice.

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[ international news ] Thailand: Infofish tuna conference to discuss crucial industry issues The Infofish Tuna 2010 conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 20-22 May this year will debate the changes that could potentially have a sweeping effect on the industry. A move by some European nations to put northern bluefin tuna under CITES List I, if successful, would result in a total trade ban of the species resulting in the collapse of the multi-billion dollar sashimi tuna trade. Even otherwise, many other developments are bound to affect the trade in high-valued tunas. ICCAT ‘s (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) and CCSBT’s (Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna) decision to reduce quotas for northern bluefin and southern bluefin tunas respectively and the proposed moratorium on bigeye tuna fishing in the western and central Pacific ocean will undoubtedly reduce sashimi tuna supplies and have a significant impact on the market.

Meanwhile stricter management measures are being mooted by the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), the largest supplier of tuna to the global market. The ban on the deployment of FADs (fish aggregating device), fishing restrictions in some high sea areas and possible reduction in the number of fishing days could significantly affect the supply, and thus the price of tuna raw material for Asian canneries. The call by Pacific Island Countries (PIC), which provides more than 50% of global tuna landings, for a respectable return for their tuna resources, and the proposed creation of a “tuna cartel”, could significantly change the landscape of the global tuna industry. The above developments and the rapidly changing tuna business environment will be discussed by industry leaders, www.eurofishmagazine.com

marketing and technical experts at TUNA 2010 Bangkok, 20-22 May, 2010. Speakers include representatives of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), NGOs and governmental policy makers. Chairpersons

Christopher Lischewski (President and CEO of Bumble Bee), Henk Brus (Managing Director, Atuna) and Chanint Chalisarapong (Vice President, Sea Value, Thailand and Chairman, Tuna Processors’ Group, TFPA) will be joined by

a host of distinguished speakers from industry including Eric Landheer (Head of NASDAQ, OMX Group Asia Pacific); Anthony Vuoso (Vice President, Tri Marine International); Don Binotto (President, Starkist, USA).

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Morpol / Laschinger launched a new product onto the German market in mid-March: marinated frozen salmon portions for the microwave in the four different flavours summer onion, tomato, herbs, and cheese.

J

Morpol / Laschinger expands business and plans to go public

Entry into the frozen portions segment Morpol’s salmon smokehouse in Ustka, Poland is probably the biggest in the world.

It processes about 70,000 tonnes of raw materials per year. With their entry into the frozen portions segment, the reorganisation of their international activities, and plans to go public, the company is laying the foundations for further growth.

12 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

erzy Malek has written a remarkable success story over the past two decades. In 1989 he left Australia where he had earned money in system catering and returned to Poland. There he invested the money in the salmon processing company Morpol. Today, the smokehouse in Ustka is considered to be the world’s most efficient processing plant of its kind with sales offices in Europe, Asia and America. On average, eleven trucks deliver fresh raw materials from Norway, Scotland and Ireland every day to keep production at the plant going. About 70,000 tonnes of fresh fish were processed to 35,000 tonnes of finished products last year, generating sales of 460 million euros according to company statistics which also point to a rising tendency. The factory employs 2,700 people, making it by far the biggest employer in the region. Staff requirements are so high that the employees are driven to the plant from the surrounding towns and villages by the company’s own buses. The plant’s 20 smoking units produce smoked fillets 16 hours a day, six days a week.

The smoking process is computer controlled and the smokers are equipped with brand-new automatic cleaning technology. The fillets are sliced on 25 processing lines and then placed onto trays by hand.

“We have seen constant growth for years now in both our production and our space requirements”, says Jadwiga Kasprzak, the president of Morpol, as she shows us around the production plant. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Cover STory

More than five hectares of covered production area exist today and a further hectare is to be added by the end of the year. With this extension the smokehouse will then reach the limits of in-company logistics. In order to enable further growth in production during the coming years the company is today already thinking about opening a second plant with the same capacity about 20 kilometres away in the town of Slupsk. They have already reserved a suitably large plot of land.

Plans to go public on the Oslo stock exchange It is to ensure this expansion that Morpol majority owner Jer-

Jerzy Malek, the majority owner of Morpol, is planning to list the company on the Oslo stock exchange.

Jadwiga Kasprzak and Andreas Maak: “We have seen constant growth for years now in both our production and our space requirements.”

zy Malek is planning to put the company on the stock exchange in Oslo, confirmed Andreas Maak, the manager of Laschinger Seafood GmbH, which is part of the Morpol Group. The

initial formalities had already been dealt with, although no time schedule had been set so far. Various options were open for the use of the fresh capital.

An expansion of production in

Ustka was just as feasible as an increase in processing capacity in the Morpol distribution centres in France or Germany. The company was also looking to co-operate in the farming sector.

Co-operation of this kind would offer synergy effects, could optimize salmon quality, and also improve traceability. In Andreas Maak’s opinion it was unlikely that there would be any problems selling the increased production volume. Sales volume had developed very well in 2009 because several discounters had offered up to eight salmon products at the same time. Morpol/ Laschinger currently estimates double digit growth rates in the smoked salmon segment in ­Europe.

The smokehouse Morpol is considered to be the world’s most efficient plant of its kind processing 70,000 tonnes of fish a year.

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

13

Cover STory

The processing area covers more than five hectares and by the end of the year a further hectare is to be added. There are eight filleting and 23 slicing lines.

Frozen salmon for the microwave In addition to an expansion in the smoked salmon business Morpol wants to enter the mar-

ket with frozen portions now, too. The company already has the know-how and processing capacity for twinpack portions with 250 g pack weight because they have already produced this

product in commission processing for quite a long time for Marine Harvest.

Morpol/ Laschinger launched a new product onto the market in

mid-March: marinated frozen salmon portions for the microwave in the four different flavours summer onion, tomato, herbs, and cheese. Heating the product in the microwave or combi

Owner / Manager: Jerzy Malek President: Jadwiga Kasprzak Manager Laschinger Seafood GmbH: Andreas Maak Sales territory: Europe, America, Japan Product range: Hot and cold smoked salmon products plus gravad salmon and salmon portions in various flavours. All pack sizes from 50 g to whole sides with the focus on 200 g portions.

Brands: Mainly production of retail brands, certain quantity also under Laschinger and Morpol

Customers: Grocery 80%, Catering 20% Sales: 460 million EUR Main buyers: Germany 65%, France, USA, ­Belgium, Great Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Finland and ­various others Trade volume: 35,000 t smoked salmon Founded: Morpol 1989, Laschinger 1979, Laurin 2004 No. of employees: 2,700 Certificates: IFS, BRC, MSC, Naturland

Morpol Group Company Fact File Morpol S.A. Duninowo 39 76-270 Ustka Poland Tel.: +48 / 59 814 38 18 Fax: +48 / 59 814 12 88 E-mail: morpol@morpol.pl Laschinger Seafood GmbH Birkenthal 8 94253 Bischofsmais Tel.: 0049 / 9920 9400-0 Andreas Maak Morpol America Inc. 2808 NE 38 th Street Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33308 Tel. +1 954 401 6038 Jim Craig

Morpol France S.A.S Z.I. Bois Bernoux 71290 Cuisery Tel. +33 6 33 87 40 32 Jean-Yves Bernard Morpol UK LTD 17 Victoria Street Aberdeen, AB 10 QPU United Kingdom Tel: +44 1224 630148 Geoff Cormack Morpol Japan CO., LTD. 1-2-43-1006, Saitozaki, Higashi-ku Fukuoka, Japan #811-0321 Susumu Tsurumaki Tel: +81 92 603 1535

14 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

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Cover STory

About 40 per cent of the production is sold under the Laschinger brand.

The smokehouse is strong in the private label business for grocery and catering segments.

cooker leads to a gradual release of the resulting steam pressure through the special microwave foil. This means that the product is cooked gently in the steam. The portion can be prepared directly out of the freezer and is then ready to eat after five minutes at 600 Watt. Further new products are to be developed and placed on the market in the medium term. “We will become more convenient – our product development focuses on fast preparation and ready to eat products”, emphasizes Maak.

Price increase inevitable At the beginning of February the salmon processor confronted the grocery sector with a price increase for smoked salmon. This was inevitable because raw materials prices had risen by more than 20 per cent since January and reached over 5 EUR per kiwww.eurofishmagazine.com

The belly flap of the fillets is cut six centimetres wide for quality reasons and put on the Japanese market by the Japanese sales office.

logram by the end of February.

There are various reasons for this rise in price. Falls in production in Chile had contributed to the situation just as much as the very cold winter in which the fishes in Norway had not increased their biomass significantly. The negative exchange rate development of the Norwegian kroner compared to the Euro was another contributing factor. Maak expects raw materials prices to remain high this year because in his estimation Chile will only return to the world market as a big supplier towards the end of 2011, early 2012.

Extension of international sales network As a result of Chile’s failure Morpol succeeded in gaining a foothold in the American market with admittedly only small quantities of smoked salmon but to make up with fresh and frozen salmon portions which are exported as

fillets or portions by plane or by ship. America is today already the third biggest buyer for Morpol after Germany and France.

The Polish salmon processor’s export share is nearly 100 per cent since the domestic market only absorbs a small amount. In addition to the sales office in America the company has sales organisations in Japan, France and Great Britain. Laschinger Seafood in Bischofsmais is also a subsidiary of Morpol and plays a special role in the sales structure because they do not only look after the important German market but also 15 other European countries. Over the past few years the company concentrated solely on the sale of finished products in Germany but in future they want to start slicing and packing smoked salmon there again too. Three slicing lines are to be installed at the existing logistics location Harsum which is situated to the south of Hannover. The whole range of grocery and catering packs will then be produced there. nik

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

15

Fish International Bremen, Germany

12th Fish International remains the driving force for the German fish industry

Bremen fish trade fair a success despite lower attendance level The 12th Fish International drew thousands of industry representatives to Bremen at the end of February. In spite of a decrease in the number of exhibitors and visitors the trade fair has lost none of its prominence. Exhibitors expressed satisfaction with the fair’s course, and decision makers from the grocery and retail sectors, industry and trade used the exhibition and accompanying programme to exchange information and ideas.

B

y what yardsticks can we judge a trade fair’s success? Based on the number of exhibitors and visitors the 12th edition of the fish trade fair in Bremen was less successful than its predecessor. The organisers counted 300 exhibitors and 9,300 visitors – both figures much lower than in 2008. But if one overlooks this statistic then despite all scep-

ticism in the run-up to the event, then yes, it was certainly a success.

That is because a decrease in the attendance figures of the exhibitors and visitors is not tantamount to a loss of innovative power and decision making authority. “The aisles might not be so full of people but conversation at the stands is intensive and promising”, was one exhibitor’s assessment, pin-

16 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

pointing the situation. This was a balance that we heard many times in our numerous conversations.

And it is understandable: In economically hard times, companies perhaps only send three instead of five employees to Bremen, to save on salary and hotel costs. But of course, it’s not going to be the decision-makers who have to stay at home but employees from the

second and third hierarchical level. Quantity is not quality where fair visitors are concerned.

So what are the yardsticks by which we can judge a trade fair’s success? Might it be the number of square metres of rented stand space? No, not really. It is true, of course, that this year’s fair was visibly smaller – everyone could see www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review

It has to be said that the Bremen fair’s existence is not threatened

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

that. And there are definitely limits below which one should not go.

But the Bremen fair is still a long way from this point because it still offers a spectrum of products and services that satisfies most needs. The complaint that was to be heard again and again that a visitor could see the whole fair within an hour is unjustified. Anyone who goes through three halls in one hour might be doing his cardiovascular system good but they can’t really gain information about what the exhibitors have to offer. It may be possible at a lot of the stands to decide quickly whether the products and services match one’s own interests but it is often the case that innovations or benefits are to be found in small details that don’t hit the eye immediately and are only revealed upon inquiry. Anyone who judges the quality of a fair solely on the basis of how long it takes them to walk along all the aisles might really just as well stay at home.

Fish International 2010 was opened by (from r. to l.): Hans Peter Schneider, Managing Director of Messe Bremen, Dr Heiner Heseler, State Councillor to the Senator for Industry and Ports in the City of Bremen, Uwe Trocha, Area Manager of Edeka Minden-Hannover, Dr German Jeub, Director at the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), Werner Prill, LZ.

by the absence of some of the big industry members. And given the fact that this year Metro had not, as in previous years invited and then transported thousands of visitors to Bremen in numerous buses from all over Germany the fall in visitor numbers was lower than one would have expected. There were even quite a

few people on the exhibitor side who were pleased that Metro and Deutsche See had stayed away.

That was because whereas normally a lot of interest was concentrated at the stands of these companies the fact that they were not present this year meant that more attention was automatically paid to the product ranges

of those suppliers who otherwise stand out less.

Crowds gathered for the Seafood Star award Visitor numbers varied greatly over the three exhibition days this year. The Sunday was clearly the fishmongers’ day which

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

The fair organisers counted 9,300 visitors this year. Sunday was a particularly busy day in the halls.

The special show of the fish retail trade was organised and set up by a co-operation between the trade association “Der Fischfachhandel” in the German Food Retail Association (Bundesverband des Deutschen Lebensmittelhandels e. V., BVL), Edeka, and the shop fittings supplier Schich from Bremerhaven.

Sunday’s grand finale was a reception for all fishmongers and this year’s and previous years’ prize winners of the Seafood Star which Edeka Minden-Hannover, the trade agency Schekerka and FischMagazin had organized together.

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

17

Fish International Bremen, Germany

At the Bremerhaven pavilion Michael Gorich from the Sea Fish Cookery Studio showed how delicious meals can be made quickly and simply from fish.

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

The Seafood Star 2010 was presented during the fish fair. FischMagazin makes this award for the best sales concepts in Germany.

In the technology hall producers displayed numerous solutions for automating fish processing.

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www.IcePackXL.nl 18 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review is not only due to the fact that these people generally only have time to visit the fair at the weekend. The exhibition programme included the annual conference of the trade association “Der Fischfachhandel” in the German Food Retail Association (Bundesverband des Deutschen Lebensmittelhandels e. V., BVL) and, no less important, the award of the industry prize ‘Seafood Star’ by FischMagazin and both these events ttracted fish retailers to the fair on Sunday; at the forum in Hall 5 every place was taken in time for the award for the best sales concepts. The Sunday found its grand finale in a reception held for all fishmongers and this year’s and the previous years’ prize winners of the Seafood Star which Edeka MindenHannover, the trade agency Schekerka and FishMagazin had organised together.

Exhibitor short review

Steen International, Kalmthout (Belgium) exhibited a skinning machine, the ST700. This system is suited to various fish species such as salmon, tilapia, barramundi, catfish, etc. The machine was designed for deep skinning so that the dark fillet areas can be removed, too.

Comment: Perfect organisation, 55 professionals visited the stand.

Quiet Monday, busy Tuesday Monday probably has to be seen as the weakest day this year. The numbers in the halls fell noticeably as from three o’clock on Monday afternoon and due to the fact that the last day at all fairs is largely marked by packing up and getting away quite a few exhibitors were by this time already feeling rather sceptical about Tuesday. But their low expectations proved mistaken and the balance at the end of the last day was satisfying.

In fact, for a lot of exhibitors the Tuesday turned out to be the most successful day.

A lot of grocery chain buyers visited the exhibition on that day and overall visitor numbers increased again considerably compared to the Monday.

That made it all the more annoying that some exhibitors packed their bags and set off for home already in the early afternoon. This is bad practice and something which the fair organisers should deal more harshly with. It’s not only that visitors who pay for an entrance ticket on the last day have just as much right to see the full exhibition as those who came before them. It upsets the www.eurofishmagazine.com

One of the new products on display at the stand of Gewürzmühle Nesse, Loxstedt-Nesse, was a spice mix from their recently developed ‘Africa line’ for decorating or mixing into foods. This product line was conceived for the football world cup in summer as a sales trigger for fish salads, fish fries and convenience products. Comment: Interested, competent visitors but a lack of international participation.

Salmco Technik, Hamburg, builds cold and soft slicers for salmon and other fish species.

The production programme ranges from simple manual table models to fully automatic slicing lines. The precise results and robust technology of the slicers are in demand throughout the world and the company exports to more than 60 countries on all continents.

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

19

Fish International Bremen, Germany

Anyone who just sits at an undecorated stand with a set face and does not contact potential buyers in the run-up to the fair is going to be less successful than a company that invites current and potential customers as guests to the fair, displays new products and gives people a chance to taste them, thereby creating a sound basis for a business relationship. It is becoming more and more apparent that a trade fair should not be seen as an isolated element within customer marketing but that it can only unfold its full potential for the exhibiting company if it is an integrated part of an intensive run-up and follow-up programme by the exhibitor.

It is becoming more and more apparent that a trade fair should not be seen as an isolated element within customer marketing but that it can only unfold its full potential for the exhibiting company if it is an integrated part of an intensive run-up and follow-up programme by the exhibitor.

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

Of course, it’s always the case that some stands don’t get many visitors and this leads to accordingly negative opinions that should not be brushed over.

However, these usually come from companies where it is easy to get the impression that when they book their exhibition space they think they are booking visitor interest in their products, too. That is something the fair organisers cannot offer, however, and it is the responsibility of the individual company.

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

working atmosphere and creates a disturbance if people are engaged in serious discussion at one stand whilst just a few metres away walls are being dismantled and decorations taken down.

In spite of intensive networking and modern means of communication the industry talk in the aisles is an indisputable add-on which only Bremen can offer in this quality.

For all this success the organisers are going to have quite a lot of work to do over the course of the next two years. The fair has noticeably lost some of its internationality. The Dutch pavilion was

Photo: Messe Bremen / Jan Rathkea

More national competence, less international claim

More than 100 German and exotic fish species were on display at the stand of the Fish Information Centre (FIZ).

20 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

considerably smaller this year, and other supply countries such as Norway, Poland or Denmark were not as strongly represented as their importance for market supply in Germany would justify. This decrease in interest from abroad should give cause to think about a re-positioning of the trade fair. One solution might be to place less weight on the fair’s international significance and to make up by emphasizing the role it plays within the Germanspeaking region. It is still true that the Bremen fair is a must for anyone who wants to sell their products on the German market.

Why? Because the decision-makers from the retail, gastronomy, and grocery sectors who attend the Bremen event are hardly to be found at foreign trade fairs.

Emphasizing national competence makes it possible to address exhibitors who are perhaps put off by the word “international” in the trade fair’s name. For the public fair ‘Slow Fisch’ which has already been successfully organised twice in Bremen it was possible to gain a number of interesting small companies which might also be of benefit to the fish trade fair.

To avoid misunderstandings: the fair cannot get by without industry and the wholesale trade and it would be very gratifying if big industry names like Metro and Deutsche See that were absent this year were to show more solidarity with the fish industry again and return to the circle of exhibitors. But by specifically addressing and supporting small traders and manufacturers the fair would become even more varied and more attractive.

Potential in the topic “quality management” A promising starting point is the fair’s creation of its special focus www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review on quality management and food safety. Even if from an optical point of view this segment was not sufficiently prominently positioned in Hall 6, it is a good idea.

Quality assurance officers so far have no fair of their own despite the fact that the significance of this topic for the food industry is growing constantly. The forerunner function of fish as a highly sensitive food almost suggests itself. Linking this topic to the fish trade fair has the potential to attract quality assurance employees from other segments of the food industry, too, thereby making the exhibition attractive for new visitor groups.

Walk-in production line attracted interest The walk-in production line in the technology sector was a good visitor magnet. Led by slicer producer Salmco from Hamburg over 20 companies had joined forces to demonstrate the complete production process of smoked fish. In a central position in Hall 7 it invited visitors to experience live all the intricacies of the process and also gave them the opportunity to gain detailed information direct from the participating companies.

This illustrative concept had not been seen in its entirety at any fair before it and, as was to expect, it attracted a lot of visitors who normally show less interest in the generally rather abstract technology presentations. It’s no secret that people stop and stare when something moves. So this is another approach that should be pursued further.

Meeting place for the fish family By what yardsticks can we judge a trade fair’s success?

There isn’t really an answer to www.eurofishmagazine.com

this starting question at all or, if there is, it is as individual as the expectations that each person has. But it can be said with certainty that a fair offers more than just an exhibition of products. It is a contact platform and a grapevine, it creates opportunities for intensive

exchange with colleagues and it offers information far beyond the displayed products and services. This function as the meeting place for the whole fish family is almost as important as the search for innovations and trends. In spite of intensive networking and

modern means of communication the industry talk in the aisles is an indisputable add-on which only Bremen can offer in this quality. And if that’s what you’re looking for you should mark the dates of the next trade fair firmly in your calendar: 12 to 14 February 2012. nik

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the Nor-FishiNg FouNdatioN Klostergt. 90 No-7030 trondheim tel +47 73 56 86 40 fax +47 73 56 86 41 mailbox@nor-fishing.no

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

21

Fish International Bremen, Germany

Seafood + Technology News 2010 Ice machines with natural refrigerant Hoshizaki Europe presented a new generation of ice machines that use natural, refrigerants without fluorocarbons. “Hoshizaki is the first company in the world to produce a CE-compliant 450 kg crush ice machine”, says plant manager Andreas Eichler. This machine uses propane (R290) as a refrigerant instead of fluorocarbon. Strict legislation limits the charge size of this inflammable hydrocarbon in ice-making appliances to 150 g per freeze cycle but Hoshizaki technicians succeeded in developing a safe and reliable ice machine that can produce 450 kg of flake or nugget

(GWP) of only three. In comparison: machines that use fluorocarbons have a GWP of between 2,000 and 4,000 depending on the refrigerant used.

Among the different kinds of ice that are normally produced clear ice is attracting growing interest at present for use in display counters.

“This relatively new ice type keeps the fish cool and damp and you can also actually see the products beneath the ice”, explains Andreas Eichler. Clear ice has rounded corners which do not damage the fragile skin of freshwater fish species as angular ice cubes do. With the right lighting clear ice also gives a very fresh appearance.

Shellfish specialities in small MAP packs Koninklijke Prins & Dingemanse is one of the leading companies in the shellfish and crustacean segment. Founded in 1880 and based in Yerseke which is the traditional heart of shellfish cultivation in the Netherlands, Prins & Dingemanse is among the pioneers of oyster and mussel cultivation. In addition to these core products the company expanded its product range continuously during recent years to include other fresh shellfish, and at the Bremen fair they presented this range in

In line with the trend towards “green technology”: This ice machine from Hoshizaki Europe is the first CE-compliant 450 kg crush ice machine in the world to work with the natural refrigerant propane.

ice and can be installed in any sized room.

Because this ice machine (FM 481 AGE-HC) has a higher efficiency level it requires less energy. “If you want to go 100% ‘green’ – and that’s what big producers in particular want at the moment – then you have to use natural refrigerants”, says the Eichler plant manager. The ice machine has an ozone depletion potential (ODP) of zero and a global warming potential 22 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

Jaap den Engelsman and Leo Kloet sell the products from Koninklijke Prins & Dingemanse on the German market.

small packs under modified atmosphere: carpet shells, scallops, vongole, palourde clams, praire clams, flat mussels, clams, whelks, great scallops, and hard clams. A further addition to the product list was a range of fresh cooked shellfish and crustaceans without the shell: mussel meat, cockle meat, and a seafood mix consisting of mussel meat and cockle meat, shrimp and squid. All the products are packed fresh daily in Yerseke and sent to Bremerhaven. They arrive at the shops with a shelflife of six days. Germany has developed into an important market for Prins & Dingemanse over the past few years, said Jaap den Engelsman, who together with Leo Kloet is responsible for sales.

Sweet and hot ‘Africa Line’ for the World Cup Visitors to the stand of Gewürzmühle Nesse got a foretaste of this year’s World Cup host country. South African cuisine inspired the spice producer’s ‘Africa Line’. Malayan and Indonesian influences were the source of products with exotic-sounding names such as PeriPeri, Jabula, Sotho and Chakalaka. “Whereas sweet and sour is typical of Asian cuisine, African cuisine is a little bit sweet and a little bit hot”, explained Stephanie Lösche who has taken over Marketing / Communication from Suzane Stipic at Nesse. Peri-Peri has a hot aftertaste, whilst Chakalaka with its touch of cinnamon and aniseed is perceived by a lot of Europeans as Christmassy. Jabula had been particularly well accepted, said Stephanie Lösche: Here, the rather individual flavour of fennel is rounded off by lemon to make a very pleasant taste experience. Sotho is dominated by rosemary. All the products are available as a coarse deco mix, for example for smoked fish, as a sauce for mixing into salads or fish fries, as a powder, or as an oil marinade for fish and seafood. There are two African flavours for oil marinades in the organic segment, too: ‘African’ and ‘Masala’.

In the additives segment Nesse exhibited a transglutaminase successor, Innu 11. This alwww.eurofishmagazine.com

News 2010

Visitors to the stand of Gewürzmühle Nesse got a foretaste of this year’s World Cup host country. The spices in the company’s ‘Africa Line’ have exotic sounding names such as Jabula and Chakalaka.

from all over the world. Manager Philip Pristovsek estimates that there are currently about 100 fish species from more than 20 countries on the product list. The Australian range, which includes yellowtail kingfish and croaker from aquaculture, for example, developed particularly well over the past two years. Turbot from Chilean aquaculture has played an increasingly important role since last year, too. Sultan Trade places about two tonnes of this fish onto the German market every week. Overall, Pristovsek has noticed a clear shift from wild to farmed fish during the past ten years. The reason for this is the better availability and predictability of farmed fish, a factor which has gained significance in an increasingly fast-reacting market.

Tuna is one of Sultan Trade’s main pillars. The company imports several tonnes of this fish per week. “Japan quality” is a recent addition to the product range. This top quality had so far only been sold on the Japanese market but is now available in Europe, too, due to decreasing demand in Japan. Tuna loins of this quality can be recognized by their wasabigreen wrapping paper. This is designed to only absorb water but not fat and oil from the fish which means the valuable meat quality is ideally protected. According to Philip Pristovsek there is international agreement that this Japan quality is the best available. It is the result of deep trimming and the removal of all white skin lines.

ginate compound is in powder form and is mixed to form a gel which penetrates the fish flesh, sets after a certain time and in this way holds the fish together. One possible application for this product is fish medaillons made of chopped salmon trimmings which if inserted into an artificial skin together with Innu 11, set and can be cut when frozen.

Farmed turbot from Chile and Japan-quality tuna Sultan Trade from Berlin has been on the market for ten years during which time it has established itself firmly as an importer of exotic fish

Sultan Trade Manager Philip Pristovsek (centre). The Berlin company offers about 100 exotic fish species from all over the world as fresh products. At the moment farmed fish from Australia (yellowtail kingfish, croaker) are developing particularly well.

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23.03.10 13:03 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010 23

Fish International Bremen, Germany

Hygiene technology in stainless steel The company Mohn from Kierspe showed itself to be highly satisfied with the customer contacts made at the fair. According to Area Sales Manager Michael Jazbec they had a lot of conversations with companies that were planning extensions or new buildings and were for this reason interested in hygiene and drainage technology, washing systems and recreation room fittings. The company’s presentation at the Bremen fair focused on walk-through hygiene systems in which the supplier claims to Sigrid Brynestad, DNV Oslo, made clear what had to be done to enable credible proof of sustainability in aquaculture.

Forum on sustainability and proactive risk management

Ways and means to effective food safety The existence of a worldwide seafood industry network and global procurement of raw materials and fish products offer fascinating possibilities but also entail risks. They affect topics such as sustainable sourcing, traceability along the supply chain, CO2 balance sheets, and energy management. Every day, quality and environment managers, food safety officers and product managers have to confront the challenge of encountering and mastering the risks that are involved. Speed, efficiency and sustainability are becoming increasingly important in this respect, particularly for the fish industry where traditional fishing and aquaculture take two fundamentally different approaches to raw material sourcing.

Both raw material sources offer similar opportunities but entail different risks, and attention must be paid to this during risk management.

At the risk management forum which was developed in co-operation with Det Norske Veritas (DNV) specialists looked at various aspects of sustainable and proactive risk management in the fish industry and pointed out which aspects demanded particular attention. Sigrid Brynestad, DNV Oslo, spoke in her lecture about the question as to how sustainability in fish farming can be 24 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

proven at all. The partners involved in a supply chain have to agree on a definition of sustainability which is generally recognized and must possess understandable, measurable criteria, for example with regard to traceability and transparency. These criteria then form the foundation upon which trustful relations with producers can be built. It was also important, Ms Brynestad said, to take the whole production chain into account and to include risk management. Using shrimp farming in Vietnam as an example she made clear the complexity and intricacy of the subject.

From the hatcheries, via the feed producers, different production techniques from extensive to highly intensive farming, through traders, transport and processing a tight system had to be installed according to international standards. It would be best to create firm structures for risk estimation and monitoring which could be integrated in companies’ sustainability management.

Other lectures looked at energy management in the fish industry, the challenge of global certification, and the question as to how traceability and sustainability can be made transparent, measurable and comparable in the case of salmon. mk

Mohn’s presentation in Bremen focused on hygiene systems for which they claim to be particularly competent.

have particular competence. Mohn’s hygiene systems are constructed completely in stainless steel and are so robustly built that they come with a 10-year guarantee. In addition to hygiene and drainage technology Mohn offers a wide programme of tables, cupboards, shelves, doors, constructional elements and protective skirtings as well as trolleys, containers and transport equipment, in short the whole plant fittings. The company supports their customers during project planning and always assesses the spatial conditions on site so that concept, planning and implementation are in one hand. All the plants from the standard range serve as basic solutions and can be adapted to suit individual conditions. In addition to the usual user instructions Mohn also offers in-depth training for technicians if customers require. www.eurofishmagazine.com

News 2010

Supplier of complete fish departments Tournus Equipement, France’s biggest supplier of stainless steel equipment for professional kitchens and fish departments, presented display counters with passive and active cooling plus a cross-section of their furnishings portfolio. A new product that they had with them was ice bins which make the filling of passively cooled display counters easier. “In that kind of fish counter you need up to 80 kilograms of ice per metre of counter”, explained Grégory Clemencin, Export Sales Manager at Tournus. The French manufacturer constructed raised bins so that sales assistants no longer have to shovel half a tonne of ice onto the stainless steel surface. The ice in the raised bins is now on the same level as the counter rear and so just has to be pulled into the counter using a slider – a considerable ergonomic improvement. Passively cooled Tournus counters are to be found in Germany at Globus or Fegro/ Selgros, for example. These counters are self-defrosting: the remaining ice is defrosted over night with waves of cold or warm water so that next morning the counter only has to be cleaned and disinfected. This gives the staff sufficient time to concentrate on product presentation.

wash-basin was a big success at the trade fairs in Leipzig in December and Stuttgart in early February”, said Clemencin. Tournus Equipement delivered no less than 635 fish departments to buyers throughout Europe in 2009.

They also supply fish departments to Dubai for the French chains Auchan and Carrefour.

Objective measurement of fresh fish

Tournus Equipement supplied more than 600 fish departments in 2009. Grégory Clemencin exhibited an ice bin as a welcome supplement to passively cooled counters: this innovation saves the staff having to shovel ice.

Sequid GmbH produces and sells electronic measuring instruments with which it is possible to determine quickly, simply and exactly the various quality parameters of fishes under practical conditions. By combining high-frequency techniques with statistical test methods it is possible, for example, to examine a fish’s freshness with a high degree of

For delicatessen salads or marinades Tournus builds massive stainless steel display counters with active air cooling. The results of a test showed that a slant of eight per cent was optimal for guaranteeing even distribution of the cold from the rear evaporators over the whole surface – not too fast, not too slow. At Tournus every counter is tailor-made in an individual work process – there are no standard modules.

In addition to counters, Tournus also builds complete fish departments – from light or stable shelf systems to hand wash-basins that are constructed in one piece.

The absence of corners and gaps means that this solution offers optimum hygiene standards. “The www.eurofishmagazine.com

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

25

Fish International Bremen, Germany Walk-in production line for smoked fish

Technology up close The walk-in production line which gave fair visitors a chance to experience the whole production process at a smokehouse from incoming raw materials to final product control was definitely one of the highlights in the processing technology section which had this year been moved to Hall 7. The organisation team around Salmco-owner Johann Glösmann had brought together 21 partners whose

processing machinery and services fitted together perfectly. Numerous demonstrations at half-hourly intervals showed what work stages are necessary before smoked salmon fillets in slices or other smoked fishes are ready for display as we know them in retail counters. All the different production steps from incoming raw materials, through filleting, trimming, skinning and slicing to vacuum or

Klaus Peter emphasized in particular the efficient cut enabled by the Maja skinning machine which leads to a higher fillet yield.

The smoked salmon fillets were sliced and placed on trays in a shingle arrangement using Salmco’s soft salmon slicer.

26 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

protective atmosphere packaging (MAP) and final product control were performed automatically.

“In the walk-in production line we don’t only want to exhibit the required technology but also show all the machines in action – We want to demonstrate how they work together”, is how Johann Glösmann describes the concept. “We can make the advantages and benefits of machine processing most clear to fair visitors and perspectives in practical applications.” The systems shown had been specially chosen so that their performance suited the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in which such work stages are still often carried out by hand. Every time a product comes into contact with a person’s hand there is a potential risk of contamination with pathogens which constitute a risk to the product’s marketability. SMEs also had a chance to see that powerful machines are not only worthwhile for big companies but that they also offer smaller companies considerable savings potential. Anyone who invests specifically in such systems and combined solutions will be able to reduce individual errors and material losses, for example, which are almost inevitable during hand processing.

Maja representative Klaus Peter, who has been at the Bremen fair right from the start, calculated for interested visitors how much money can be saved by using Maya’s material-saving skinning machine. The optimised cut only removes the brown fat in the middle of the salmon fillet so that the red meat remains in the fillet. On average, this leads to an increase in yield of 3% which, given a daily throughput of 1,000 kg, adds up to 30 kg additional product weight. With salmon prices as they are today this can be equivalent to the value of an upper segment car. Klaus Peter is sure of one thing: “People who try to save on technology pay considerably more in the end than they tried to save through making a cheap purchase.”

This principle also applies to other machines that were presented in the walk-in production line. They included hand guided pneumatic knives for trimming salmon sides, automatic systems for removing pinbones and the darker coloured strip of muscle in the fillet, variable slicers for salmon and other fish species from Salmco, and a vacuum packaging machine from Variovac with which smaller companies can seal products under MAP. mk www.eurofishmagazine.com

News 2010 a­ ccuracy. This enables processing plants to choose which raw materials are suitable for which processing methods or for which sales channels. When trading fresh fish it is particularly important, for example, to know the product’s shelf-life so as to be able to put the fish to alternative use prior to its spoilage.

Every additional day of assured product safety that can be gained through accurate controls is hard cash for the trader.

With the measuring device Sequid RFQ Scan 3.0 it is possible to measure not only freshness, however, but also other quality parameters… for example whether a fish was frozen only once or twice, or whether water has been added artificially (for example during phosphate treatment) to increase product weight. In order to carry out these measurements, only additional modules are necessary, i.e. supplementary software packages which extend the performance spectrum of the present measuring instrument.

Dr Boris Oberheitmann, Sequid Manager, and Maria Wilhelm. Different quality parameters of fish can be measured exactly using the Sequid RFQ Scan 3.0.

A new software module called ‘AdWater’ was presented in Bremen. This is for analysing water binding substances in shrimps and fish in just seconds. Another module, FroQ, can be used to determine the quality of frozen products.

The Sequid measuring instruments are reliable because they are based on dielec-

European Seafood Exposition Brussels, Belgium April 27th – 29th 2010 Hall 4.0, Stand 4-6051

trical spectroscopy. A broadband impulse is transmitted to the tissue under examination and its reflection is subsequently analysed with the help of multivariate statistics. The material conditions that are marked by different dielectricity are characterised and recognized by the system.

The reflections enable, for example, exact determination of shelf-life for fresh and frozen fish. In the event that the temperature deviated from ideal conditions during storage this is recognized by the measuring system and a value for an “older” fish will be shown. The measured value thus reflects not the actual age of the fish but its biological “age ­condition”.

At Fish International Sequid offered a free workshop on the handling of the Sequid RFQ Scan 3.0. After an introductory lecture participants could test the device’s operation on fish and shrimp pieces and so convince themselves of the instrument’s ­accuracy.

A wide range of packaging machinery and automation systems makes Multivac one of the leading manufacturers of packaging solutions for foodstuffs.

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whole fish and fillets chunked and sliced fresh and frozen smoked and in brine.

Our packaging solutions are designed to produce what your products deserve: Better Packaging.

www.multivac.com

Fisch_184x124_en 1

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16.03.10 14:16

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

27

NASF Oslo, Norway

North Atlantic Seafood Forum

Recession impacts industry less than expected Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the North Atlantic Seafood Forum 2010 was a longawaited event for the 430 seafood professionals who came to Oslo from 23 different countries. It has to be admitted that it is getting more and more challenging for speakers and organizers to fulfill the high expectations of the NASF audience which has historically included CEOs of leading companies, decision makers, top traders and producers. Positioned as the largest seafood business conference in the world, the NASF this year was particularly interesting for an audience eager to discuss how the North Atlantic seafood industry and its global markets were managing in a recessionary period

T

he first day of the conference started with a debate on fisheries policy. After opening the event the conference

chairman Mr. Guus Pastoor (President, AIPCE) reviewed the current situation of the CFP reform and welcomed the new regula-

tion against IUU which came into force two months ago. He also emphasized the growing interest for private certification schemes:

The fifth anniversary of the North Atlantic Seafood Forum gathered 430 seafood professionals from 23 countries to discuss the outlook for the North Atlantic industry and its markets against the backdrop of the recession.

“The large proportion of the market is supplied by third countries and this evokes reaction. Questions about origin of the fish and sustainability of fisheries management and aquaculture in third countries have set new initiatives in motion”.

Discards a “scandalous waste” that cannot be tolerated The new EU fisheries policy reform was energetically discussed

NASF 2010 – The speakers

Bruno Correard, CorreardB Chris Britton, CEO, Findus Consulting, France Group, UK

28 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

Eggert Gudmundsson, CEO, Guus Pastoor, President, HB Grandi, Iceland AIPCE, Brussels

John-Paul McGinley, CEO, Morpol, Poland

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review by the Danish Food Agriculture and Fisheries Minister’s policy adviser, Mr. Mogens Schou, who criticized the existing “longrunning disaster” that has been the CFP. “Denmark is pushing to switch to ‘Total Allowable Landings’ where all fish caught has to be brought onshore and recorded. Discards now account for twice the actual catch, which is a scandalous waste,” he said. Trial attempts of the most efficient fishery are under way in Denmark with hopefully promising results.

The head of “Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation” Mr. Mike Pike also believes that in ten years discards will not be tolerated, and in five years every fish will be counted and recorded.

The CEO of Seafood Scotland Mrs. Libby Woodhatch talked about EU SFP (Strengthening Fishery Products), discards and sustainability. She compared the industry’s perception of NGO’s and “green issues” before 2006 and the situation after underlining that the industry finally grasped the need for independent verification of responsible and sustainable practices. “The green issues are moving south,” she said, adding that French shoppers will find it easier to choose certified sustainable seafood when a new nationwide awareness campaign, Les Jours

Karen Galloway, Seafish, UK

Bleus, was launched in Carrefour stores in January 2010. Indicating some weaknesses with the Marine Stewardship Coucil, Mrs. Woodhatch expressed the need to continuously improve practices and demonstrate this clearly to stakeholders. “Green issues are here to stay,” was her conclusion.

Salmon sector sees record volumes, record prices After the break the audience heard an impressive report about record prices in the salmon industry from Nordea Bank analyst Kolbjørn Giskeødegaard. Prices are expected to stay continuously high during 2011 mainly because of problems in Chile. “We expect salmon prices to be in the range of NOK30-35 per kilo in 1H 2010 with NOK33 as an average 2010 price,” said Mr. Giskeødegaard. He illustrated that the sector had performed extremely well in the last two years. “Debt diminished and market value was boosted during the recession. No wonder we recommend buying salmon shares,” concluded Mr. Giskeodegaard adding that the overall demand for salmon in Europe was up by 8% in 2009.

The chairman of “Kontali Analise” Mr. Lars Liabø confirmed that the

Klaus B. Nielsen, CEO, A.Espersen AS, Denmark

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Marit Solberg, MD, Marine Harvest, Norway

outlook for producers of Atlantic salmon seemed even brighter than before in the upcoming year, estimating a total harvest of 1,468,000 tonnes in 2009 (-2% compared to 2008) and 1,392,000 tonnes in 2010 (-5% compared to 2009). Mr. Geir Isaksen (Cermaq) shared news about the recent earthquake in Chile and how badly it affected local people who stormed his plant to get wheat flour which was used for salmon feed. “The shortage of biomass will be one of the main constraints for harvesting in the future, but at least it mean less disease,” added Mr. Isaksen.

Can whitefish be reinvented as diet food ?

The CEO of Esperson, Klaus Nielsen reported a strong recovery in the company’s activity. Existing capacity in Western and Eastern Europe was complimented with new plants in China and Vietnam. Mr Nielsen stressed the importance of ethical conduct in all aspects of business in Asia such as child labor and food scandals as well as the company’s choice to have its own representatives monitoring all stages of production for tighter control. The company plans to reach a turnover of 400 million euro by 2015 by continuing value-added process,

Peter Dill, CEO, Deutsche See, Germany

organic growth and acquisitions.

“There will be more consumers and long term increased disposable income as well as increased life expectancy for EU citizens in general. Therefore, I see the fish business as a winner,” said Mr Nielsen. He drew special attention to the health issue stating that obesity was starting to be a bigger problem in the EU. Will whitefish products be a popular diet food?

Evidently so.

High salmon prices could drive consumers to substitutes Marit Solberg from Marine Harvest opened the floor in this session of the conference. Presenting the financial results of the group she stated the Marine Harvest was returning to profitability and adapting to the changed market model after the disastrous year in 2008. “2010 is expected to be a good year. However, there are uncertainties not only in Chile but also in Norway and the market will be tight both in 2010 and 2011. However, demand is very strong despite the weak economy.” Ms Solberg noted that the overall salmon market had been changed to the global market. It used to be a patchwork of volumes and prices, but was now becoming more uniform with a more global price. “There are

Terje Martinussen, Åshild Nakken, CEO, Norwegian Norwegian Seafood Seafood Export Council Export Council, China Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

29

NASF Oslo, Norway strong indications that the market will be good in 2010 and also in 2011. It looks very good from a supplier’s point of view. But we need to adjust this tight market with a sustainable price to prevent customers from substituting salmon with other protein sources. Once that happens, it will be very difficult to get those customers back,” she concluded.

Iceland – an exclusive supplier of wild fish HB Grandi’s CEO, Mr. Eggert Gudmundsson, talked about seafood’s role in the national economic recovery in Iceland, competition from other species, role of the value chain and environmental issues. Whereas seafood consumption increases and wild catches are stable or decreasing, he sees Iceland’s role as an exclusive supplier of wild caught fish to target markets. Seafood, which is responsible for 42% of the national export, is still the backbone of the Icelandic economy. He feels that politicians are fiddling with the management system, “…the government is focused just on cutting the cake rather than baking it.” Stability and focus on investments for maximizing value are the keywords in further recovery from crisis.

During the panel discussion a question was raised about the approach to sustainability certification in Iceland. Mr. Gudmundsson said that the Marine Stewardship Council had been doing an excellent job, but added that Iceland went its own way. “I don’t think there has to be one label, but there can be many solutions. Now we are trying to create a programme which is based on FAO standards and certifies by a third party, so we have competition between solutions.”

Getting British consumers to love fish The new CEO of the Findus Group, Mr. Chris Britton, is convinced that the consumer is king.

He commissioned an extensive consumer survey with interesting results which showed that fish is very polarizing in the UK. It was discovered that the majority of the 3,000 UK consumers surveyed expressed that they are confident when cooking fish; they clearly enjoyed it and understand its health benefits. Surprisingly, 95% of the consumers said that fish is of better value than meat and chicken. However, on the other side, fish is still not a habit in the UK, where it accounts only for 2.5% of meals and is purchased only 12 times a year by the average UK consumer.

The explanation? Hard to handle, hard to eat, hard to cook, hard to please everyone, and can get boring, were the most important reasons for UK consumers switching to protein sources other than fish. Mr. Britton is sure that a consumer-focused company can make consumers love fish and this will be his main challenge and task for the upcoming years.

The good news is that consumers understand the value of freezing fish. However frozen fish still does not deliver on consumers growing desire for “real food”. Resolving frozen category negatives by changing consumers’ perception of frozen and continuously optimizing products is the main challenge for Findus. Mr. Britton is confident that UK consumers turn to food for social pleasure, and fish, both fresh and frozen, is in a strong great position to benefit from this attitude.

Karen Galloway from Seafish confirmed the expectation that UK consumers will shift from chilled to frozen fish products although

30 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

many of them believe that frozen product is not of the same quality as fresh. She pointed out that the quick consumer service category in the UK during the recession was “the only area which has resisted the crisis. For instance, McDonalds had a very strong performance; and the biggest increase (+7%) of white fish consumption (other than cod) was shown in the quick consumer service,” says Mrs. Galloway.

Consumers switch to cheaper brands at retail level On the second day the conference moved to marketing and consumer topics and Ian Campbell from Nielsen explained European consumers’ behavior through the recession. Consumers may be cutting back on other areas but in general they are increasing expenditure on food. At the same time, there is a clear downward price pressure: 35% of European consumers switch to cheaper grocery brands in order to save on household expenses. Private label sub-brand growth, promotion, massive expansion of the budget brands and discounters are the main features in the EU retail sector now.

A similar picture can be observed on the French market. Bruno Correard from CorreardB Consulting mentioned that there was a 1.8% drop in fish consumption in France in 2009. The fresh fish category experienced 2.6% less purchases because of the decreased buying power. But in the meantime, there are more consumers - 80% of French families bought fresh fish. Consumption of fresh cod went up by 48% and consumption of Norwegian salmon by 7.1% because of lower prices.

At the same time purchases of “fresh” pangasius are down by

22.9% which was good news for gourmets. Less domestic production and more imports from Norway are presently the main trends in France which is the biggest market for Norwegian salmon and fresh cod fillets. A clear message from the French side was that traditional retail is facing a tough time and the most topical for French retailers is a “3D strategy” - discounts, discounts, discounts…. Unsurprisingly, fewer dinners are consumed outside, while people are treating themselves at home. He concluded that 2010 will remain a hard year for French consumers, who still have fragile buying power. Distributors will focus on core market products and sustainability issues while at the same time reducing costs.

Massive increase in Norwegian exports to Russia, Ukraine Denis Repinsky, Defa Group, briefed the audience about the Russian fisheries sector outlining that the national production of fish and seafood has increased by +3% (reaching 3.7 million) in 2009, while imports declined (-3%) to 791,762 tonnes because of www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review The lively panel discussion after the second session was chaired

by Rolf Domstein, the Chairman of the Norwegian Seafood Export Council. Next to him is Jason Clay, WWF, USA, who represented the NGO point of view.

through a beauty and health program that links salmon consumption with weight loss and better skin.

Consumers play safe in uncertain times new legislation introduced in January 2009. Norway increased its share of imports from 40% in 2008 to 51% in 2009 due to the growth of fresh fish orders. It is interesting to note that last year the price for fresh fish was very favorable compared with meat prices. Fish market capacity for 2010 is forecaste at almost 4 million tonnes what is some 10,000 tonnes higher than in 2009. “It will be a tough year, but the tendencies are promising.

Importers have challenges as always, but consumers want to have fish in the shops,” concluded Mr. Repinsky.

Ukraine is currently experiencing a difficult time taking into consideration political and economic changes as well as a weak national currency. Christen Mordal of CA Mordal Consulting highlighted such shifting consumer behavior such as a move from consumer goods to basics, increased home consumption, and inceased purchases of less value-added products. On the retail side, import substitution, a shift towards inexpensive goods, cost reductions, and consolidation among market players are the main tendencies.

In 2009, a difficult year, the share of Norwegain seafood in Ukrainwww.eurofishmagazine.com

ian seafood imports increased to 40% (27% in 2008) mainly due to the increased imports of whole round herring. This indicates that the growth potential is still big in Ukraine although it is a market not without risk with numerous administrative and technical barriers as well as infrastructural challenges.

Chinese consumers concerned with health benefits of food Norwegian salmon is becoming a big brand in China in the same way as famous French and Italian luxury fashion brands. Research carried out by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council showed that Chinese consumers were most concerned about health issues when buying food compared with UK, US, German and Argentinean consumers. “Health benefit” is considered a very important factor by 78% of the respondents in China when they buy food.

“Chinese consumers are increasingly affluent, favoring high value and premium products,” said Ms Åshild Nakken (Director NSEC China). An interesting aspect of the Chinese market was promotion of Norwegian salmon

The closing session of the conference in the afternoon moved to the issues of resources, supply and prices for North Atlantic fisheries products. Mr. Amund Braaten, Senior Analyst, NSEC talked about seafood demand and the financial tsunami, pointing out that in a time of uncertainty consumers return to safe choices, local products, increased focus on price, and home cooking. He made an example of the markets in Spain and France, where one could see a strong positive development in the value of seafood bought for home consumption.

Moving to white fish supply, Kristin Lien, Senior Analyst, NSEC, showed that in 2009 the top market for Norwegian whole frozen herring was Nigeria, followed by Russia and Ukraine, whereas Russia and Poland were the biggest markets for frozen herring fillets.

Russia remains the biggest market for frozen mackerel from Norway, Iceland and the EU as well as the biggest market for Norwegian capelin. Concerning structural changes in household consumption of herring in Russia, it is evident that consumption of whole herring has increased while demand for herring fillet in portions

was lower in 2009 compared to 2008.

Ragnar Tveteras from the University of Stavanger concluded the conference session with his presentation on competing species in whitefish sector in Europe. Again, he noted a downward pressure on prices and low economic growth which is expected in Europe.

At present, pangasius sector is consolidating, and it will regain growth momentum later. In general, frozen whitefish market will continue to be fiercely competitive for many processors and differentiation away from the frozen fish price regime will be challenging.

Demand and supply outlook positive in 2010, 2011 The conference concluded with the main message that the seafood industry has not been as hurt and is much more robust than expected last year. Although it is not the same for all species, on the whole North Atlantic products are doing well and there are strong indications that both market and supply will be good in 2010 and also in 2011, which has been demonstrated by many companies.

However, a need for sustainable price, improved market communication, sustainability issues and “core-product focus” in the retail sector will be some of the most demanding tasks for satisfying and keeping consumers. Whereas one speaker said that today’s European market’s motto was “value for money”, another mentioned that EU consumers were returning to their old purchasing pattern, but focusing more on values rather than on value. Old purchasing habits for the least money probably describes fish consumption in Europe in 2010.

Katia Tribilustova, Eurofish

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

31

India Int. Seafood Show Chennai, India

India International Seafood Show 2010

From frozen blocks to greater value addition

Organised by the Marine Product Development Agency (MPEDA) and the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), the 17th edition of the India International Seafood Show 2010 aimed at creating a platform for networking and business opportunities as well as promoting the capabilities of the Indian marine seafood industry and aquaculture. “In Chennai this year we have made a small beginning. In future we will build on this. Our ultimate aim is to make the India International Seafood Show one of the world’s largest sea food trade events,” said Ms Leena Nair, the Chairperson of MPEDA, at the inauguration of the show.

T

he motto of the show was ”The world’s largest democracy offers the widest choice of seafood.” A catchy slogan indeed, but one that is not quite borne out by the facts. As Ms Leena Nair pointed out in her speech, 77% of the shrimp volumes, 79% of the cuttlefish, and 85% of the squid are still being exported as block frozen products. If India is to increase its export earnings processors have

to upgrade their facilities and infrastructure and start shipping more value added products. Certainly part of the push towards greater value addition is coming from the administration. The federal government has identified marine products as a thrust sector, giving it access to resources and expediting clearances and permissions. The federal commerce ministry has introduced schemes that assist the industry

32 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

to restructure and invest in more advanced equipment. At the show the theme was value addition, the topic around which the event and the associated technical sessions revolved.

Slower growth in exports a cause for concern In spite of the worldwide recession and protectionist measures

Growth in Indian exports of seafood has been feeble the last few years. For this to change processors need to move away from block-frozen and add greater value to their production, the main theme of the India International Seafood Show 2010, which was held in Chennai in February.

adopted by some destination markets, the Indian seafood industry grew slightly over the period 2008-09 compared with a year ago. However, growth in the last couple of years has been slacking. In 2006-07 there was a 12.7% increase in the dollar value of exports compared with the year before. This figure crashed to 2.5% in 2007-08 and fell further to 0.5% in 2008-09. In absolute figures exports during 2008-09 reached 600,000 tonnes valued at USD1.9bn. Part of the reason was the imposition of anti-dumping duties on shrimp in the US, the tightening of health norms by the authorities in the EU, and competition from countries with lower costs of production. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Review MPEDA has ambitious plans to more than triple the amount of seafood exported to 2m tonnes with a value of USD6bn by the year 2017 making India one of the top five seafood exporting nations in the world. It is widely acknowledged that value addition is the only way to go. As Ms Nair said, “this overall increase can only be achieved through expansion and diversification of aquaculture production coupled with increased production of value-added products.” Trade is only part of the argument for this growth. Seven million small fishermen depend exclusively on fishing for their livelihood. India is estimated to have around 2.5 million fishing vessels, the great majority of which are traditional small fishing boats. A mere 80 are trawlers and only 2,500 are big boats (12-18 metres). In total some 12 million people are directly or indirectly employed by the sector, which thereby plays an important socio-economic role in the country.

Diversification in markets and products Currently there is an overwhelming dominance of block frozen products especially, shrimp, cuttlefish and squid in India’s exports. The country is the leading supplier of cephalopods to Europe and the third and fourth largest exporter of shrimp to Japan and the US respectively.

More than 50% of the shrimp comes from aquaculture. But processors have started responding to the need for greater value addition. Several companies have individual quick freezing equipment and others are starting to produce ready-to-eat canned or pouched, as well as cooked and frozen products. Though shrimp continues to dominate the Indian exports, the industry has started www.eurofishmagazine.com

From left, Mr K.P. Samy, Minister of Fisheries, Government of Tamil Nadu; Prof. K. V. Thomas, Federal Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Mr Anand Sharma, Federal Minister for Commerce and Industry; and Ms Leena Nair, Chairperson of the Marine Products Export Development Authority at the lamp lighting ceremony marking the start of the India International Seafood Show 2010.

to diversify both in terms of products and markets. Interest in the west for organic products has led to the development of organically farmed shrimp as a niche.

For many years, Japan was India’s largest export market, importing raw material for the processing industry. However, with a more diversified product portfolio (e.g. lobster, finfish, crabs), this situation has changed, and today the EU is the main export market, accounting for about 33% in value terms. It is followed by China 14.8%, Japan 14.6% and USA 12%, South East Asia 10% and the Middle East 5.5%.

More investment needed tra modern processing plants, strict India definitely has the potential to increase its exports. With over 8,000 km of coastline, a variety of cultured and captured finfish and shellfish, 221 processing units approved for export to the EU, and a largely underutilised freezing capacity, there is every reason to be optimistic. Over the years the seafood industry has emerged as one of the country’s biggest foreign currency earners. To increase export revenues the industry needs to invest in the latest technology and increase the level of sophistication of the products manufactured. Ul-

Indian seafood exports in million USD 2,500 2,000 1,500

1,478.48

1,644.21

1,852.93

1,899.09

1,908.63

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

1,000 500 0

2004-05

2005-06

quality control measures complying with international standards, skilled and innovative personnel can result in the kind of value-added products that are in demand on export markets; products which save labour, are ready-to-eat, look and taste good, and are healthy and nutritious.

The India International Seafood Show attracted over 150 exhibitors mostly Indian companies representing the whole spectrum of the fisheries and aquaculture sector. In addition there were visitors from several European, Asian, and American countries. MPEDA and SEAI will organise the next edition of the show in 2012. MPEDA is a government promotion agency in the Federal Ministry of Commerce that also has responsibility for management of deep-sea fishing, aquaculture, registration of exporters and laying down standards.

SEAI is a trade body that protects and promotes the interest of the seafood industry. Almost 90% of the seafood exporters of India are members of this organisation.

Anca Sfetcovici, Eurofish

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

33

India Int. Seafood Show Chennai, India

Indian Seafood Trends 2010 Shrimp with quality guaranteed Bluepark Seafoods was established in 1989 in the Krishna district at the heart of the black tiger shrimp cultivating area in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The company processes finfish and shellfish into a wide range of products that are consumed on the Indian market as well as exported to Bangladesh, Malaysia, the EU, and countries in the Middle East. Exports generate 15-20% of our turnover, says S. Devaraj, the general manager, while the rest comes from the domestic market. The company produces black tiger (P. monodon) and white (L. vannamei) in different sizes and forms both raw and cooked. The shrimp is responsible for more than 90% of the company’s turnover, with only 10% coming from the finfish. We sell marine fish and farmed freshwater species including pangasius (P. hypophthalmus, P. bocourti), barramundi (Lates calcarifer), catla (Catla catla) and rohu (Labeo rohita) that are popular in the north eastern Indian states of West Bengal, and Assam as well as in neighbouring Myanmar, explains Mr Devaraj. Raw material for the production is sourced from farms in the area as the company itself has only 100 ha, which is enough for not more than one month of production. We have stringent quality control measures in place to ensure the quality of the raw material and the finished product meets with the requirements of our export markets, says Mr Devaraj.

Bluepark Seafoods exports black tiger and white shrimp to markets in Asia and Europe and sells farmed freshwater fish on the domestic Indian market.

34 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

The Indian government has also put mandatory procedures in place to make sure that product quality meets the expected standards.

The Indian Coastal Aquaculture Authority is responsible for regulating the aquaculture industry in coastal areas including fixing standards for the feed, growth supplements, and the chemicals and medicines used for the farming of fish and shellfish. The Marine Product Export Development Authority, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, also plays a role in ensuring the quality of the raw material and the final product, by inspecting the farms, and by establishing and running testing laboratories. New regulations on export markets have made it mandatory for companies to have a comprehensive traceability system in place that keeps track of the shrimp from the hatchery to the final product.

According to Mr Devaraj, general manager of Bluepark Seafoods, MPEDA also simplifies the access that is needed to all the various departments at the central, state and local administrative levels that the company needs in order to sell its products across the country and abroad.

Bluepark Seafoods Pvt. Ltd Pamarru Mandal Krishna District Kurumaddali 521157 Andhra Pradesh India Tel.: +91 8674 254934 Fax: +91 8674 254271, 254336 blueparkseafoods@gmail.com www.blueparkseafoods.com General Manager: Mr S Devaraj

From their new built EU-approved factory in Tuticorin, a port town near the southern- most tip of India, 55,000 tonnes of seafood are produced yearly, bringing revenues of over EUR 7 million. Exports are made both under customers’ and Britto’s own brand - “Britto Just-Eat”, and they cover a wide range of countries in the Middle East, USA, Europe and South East Asia. All the raw materials and ingredients are sourced in India. With a storage capacity of 15 tonnes of live seafood at three different locations, Britto’s main exports are lobster and baigai – for the Chinese and Japanese markets, as well as crab and eel. In addition, a wide range of chilled products are offered both to the domestic and international markets such as: sashimi tuna to Tokyo, sea tiger prawn to Brussels, mahi mahi to Miami and king fish to Taipei.

Most of the frozen products go to the US and the EU. The company has a storage capacity of 500 tonnes and two blast freezers with 15 tonnes capacity of finished products per day, and can easily handle their customers’ requirements. Britto implements HACCP, GMP and SSOP to guarantee the safety and quality of their products. A team of competent and experienced technical personnel monitors the production continuously. The company employs 300-400 people.

Newly introduced products include readyto-eat and canned items for both the Indian and export markets. The best quality of fish is selected, dressed and cut into conveniently sized pieces, which are further cleaned, marinated and pre-cooked, cooled, weighed and filled into flexible four layer pouches made of polyester/aluminium foil/nylon/cast polypropylene giving them good mechanical and barrier properties. Gravy using authentic Indian Simply recipes is cooked and mechanically filled into “Just-Eat” fish the pouches which are then vacuum sealed.

The company Britto Seafood Exports dates The integrity of the seals is checked and the from 1979 and is a family-run business which pouches are thermally treated to remove any produces and exports live, chilled, frozen, val- pathogenic micro-organisms. Ready-to-eat ue-added and canned seafood. The company products can be stored at ambient temperavision is to evolve as a global leader in the sea- ture for more than one year and they do not food industry through “integrity, dedication need any refrigeration. No irradiation, hazardand innovation.” ous chemicals or preservatives are used to exwww.eurofishmagazine.com

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Britto’s management team is looking for feedback on the canned fish recently introduced in to the EU.

tend the shelf life. The the canned fish include mackerel, sardines, and tuna in oil or brine. These have just been introduced on the EU market and feedback from customers is expected.

Last but not least, Britto is a preferred seafood supplier to the Indian hospitality and retail sectors. Its customers vary widely, from the Subway fast-food chain that buys processed tuna, to world class hotels and supermarkets in the biggest Indian cities.

Britto Seafood Exports Pvt Ltd No: 4/1, Balakrishnan Street, Tondiarpet, Chennai 600081 India Tel: +91 44 25911997 Fax: +91 4425911976 britto_exports@yahoo.co.in http://www.brittejusteat.com Chief Executive: Mr. A. Christian

Frozen cephalopods for the EU The Capithan Group was established in 1974 and was one of the earliest Indian processing establishments to be approved for export to the EU after implementing a HACCP plan in the factory. Today the Group has two EU-approved processing factories, Capithan Exporting Company and Veronica Marine Exports Pvt. Ltd, both based in Kollum, in the state of Kerala in South India.

The company is focused on the export of frozen cephalopods, squid, octopus, and cuttlefish, to markets in the EU including Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Fance, Portugal, and Greece. We are also seeing interest in our products from Albania and Russia, says Peter Austin, the company director. One of the processing www.eurofishmagazine.com

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India Int. Seafood Show Chennai, India plants has in fact also been approved by the Russian authorities and the second one is expected to be approved soon. Within a couple of months the final modalities are expected to be cleared both on the Russian and the Indian sides and the first consignment will be shipped.

in the development of the the fish. Over 3 million tonnes (FAO, 2007) of freshwater fish are farmed in India, including catla, Shrimp is obtained both from capture and rohu, silver carp, and mrigal carp, chiefly culture. Capithan does not farm shrimp for the domestic market. Production has itself but has contracts with shrimp farms increased by almost 80% since 2000 when that supply to the company’s specifications. it stood at 1.8 million tonnes and culture reQuality here is ensured by the company lies increasingly on pelleted feeds, that are The company gets its raw materials from the which has its own modern laboratories designed for high stocking densities, rapid nearby ports ensuring thereby that only the where personnel monitor the entire pro- growth, better survival rates and resistance freshest material is processed. In periods duction process from procurement to the to disease. These feeds are scientifically when the product is out of season the raw final product, carrying out regular micro- formulated to provide a balanced diet at material is imported, chiefly from Yemen, biological tests. The Marine Products Ex- each stage of development and to maximBahrain, and Oman, in the Middle East. Two port Development Authority, a government ise the palatability of the feed, which are years ago Capithan invested in a cooking agency, also plays a critical role. Before composed of a mixture of fish and squid line from Marel to add an additional line of shrimp can be harvested from a pond it first meal, soya bean, rice and wheat flour, as items, cooked and individually frozen, to its has to be inspected by MPEDA, samples are well as fats, vitimins and minerals. The fish product range. The response to these prod- taken and analysed and then if everything is meal and oil used in the feeds used to come ucts has been very good, says Mr Austin, we in order a certificate is issued allowing the from Chile and Peru, but now these ingreharvesting to go ahead and the product to dients are sourced locally ensuring their freshness and also reducing the risk from be exported. currency fluctuations. may consider moving into chilled products as well.

Capithan Exporting Company Port Road, Sakthikulangara Kollam 691581 Kerala, India Tel: +91 474 2770297 Fax: +91 474 2771164 capithan@rediffmail.com www.capithansgroup.com Director: Mr Peter Austin

Peter Austin, the director of the Capithan Group, exports frozen seafood to markets in the EU and is also responding to recent opportunities in Eastern Europe.

now offer to the supermarkets ready-to-eat products such as seafood mixes, cooked blanched shrimp, squid rings, tentacles, seafood salads including a value pack with a mix of cuttlefish, squid and octopus. The company also produces block frozen cephalopods which are then reprocessed by the buyer. All the production is frozen and there are no plans to move into chilled seafood despite the market that is available.

According to Mr Austin chilled seafood is a completely different product and would require a dedicated team to execute. For the moment therefore the company is concentrating on frozen, though in the future it 36 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

The feeds are distributed through an extensive network of dealers in the eight coastal Indian states. In 2009 the company produced 100,000 tonnes of shrimp feed and a further 16,000 tonnes of fish feed. The shrimp feed is also exported to markets in Australia (8,000 tonnes), while a further 9,000 tonnes was sent to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Saudi Arabia.

The company has three shrimp hatcheries producing black tiger (P. monodon) and white (L. vannamei) shrimp. While the capacity for black tiger is 60 million post larvae (PL) per month the actual production C.P. Aquaculture India started in 1992 and fluctuates with the demand – last year probegan manufacturing feeds in 1996. Today, duction amounted to 275 million pieces. apart from manufacturing feeds, the company also has shrimp hatcheries and farms. Production of white shrimp only started last A wholly owned subsidiary of the Charoen year with the import of broodstock from Pokphand Group of Thailand, which in- Thailand and production so far amounts to cludes C.P. Aquaculture, a manufacturer about 60 million PLs. Production of white of aquatic animal feeds C.P Aquaculture shrimp is still relatively low in India. Farms India currently has two feed factories with have to comply with strict conditions before a total capacity of 165,000 tonnes a year of they are licenced to culture white shrimp shrimp feed and a further 40,000 tonnes and upgrading the farms is taking time as a year of fish feed. The fish feed is a new farmers are unsure as to whether they can product that was launched at the beginning compete with other countries where proof 2009 and will soon be manufactured in a duction costs are lower. According to Mr separate factory to be built in 2011. These Balu of C.P. Aquaculture white shrimp is feeds are available as floating or sinking currently estimated at about two percent of feeds and are available for all the stages the total shrimp production, but he expects

Shrimp and fish feeds for each stage of development

www.eurofishmagazine.com

News 2010 C.P. Aquaculture (India) Pvt. Ltd. 47/D4 Gandhi Mandapam Road Kotturpuram Chennai 600 085 Tamil Nadu India Tel.: +91 44 2447 5948 Fax: +91 44 2447 2880 balu@mycpindia.com www.mycpindia.com Manager: Mr Balu

aquaculture thereafter, when the salinity is reduced as the result of the rainy season. Aquaculture is extensive without the use of artificial feed or chemicals. The main species grown are tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon), white prawns (Penaeus indicus), freshwater king prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), Thelly shrimp (Acetes indicus) and a variety of freshwater fish.

RF Exports is committed to promoting responsible, social and ethical management of its employees and the natural resources it relies upon. The company has been audited by BVQI (Bureau Veritas Quality International), Committed to Mr Balu of C.P Aquaculture India, a to demonstrate its compliance with the Ethiquality and wholly owned subsidiary of the Charoen cal Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code, which sustainable fisheries reflects the most relevant international standPokphand Group of Thailand. The Indian R.F. Exports has been producing and ex- ards on labour practices. operation manufactures feeds for shrimp and porting various species of seafood (e.g. cutfreshwater fish for the domestic market and tlefish, squid, octopus, clam, fin fish) for the Delivering product of consistent quality is the for export. last 20 years. Japan with 60% of the exports, main aim of RF Exports. This is aided by HACit to grow over the coming years. The com- followed by the EU (30%), the USA and the CP, GMP, and SSOP systems all operated and pany is introducing traceability systems Middle East are the most important markets. maintained by a team of highly experienced in the hatchery as it is increasingly being Half the exports are crustaceans, followed technical staff. The organisation employs 260 demanded by buyers who want to see the by cephalopods (35%) and fish (15%). The people. In-house microbiological laboratory record of farming practices and the use of company is certified by BRC (British Retail accredited by (EIC) Export Inspection Counantibiotics.

Consortium) and complies with ISO 22000 cil of India is capable of testing for a complete standards. It also offers full product trace- range of micro-organisms.

C.P. Aquaculture also has its own farms which ability. are also used for demonstration purposes.

R.F. Exports Some of the farms are owned while others are The modern EU approved plant can handle 45 Eramalloor, Alappuzha 688 537 leased and the total area amounts to 60 ha tonnes of raw material per day for conversion India devoted to white shrimp of which 20 ha are into finished product, such as ready-to-eat, Tel: +91 478 2872428 under production while 40 ha are being pre- cooked and raw IQF (Individually Quick FroFax: +91 478 2875062 pared and should be ready shortly. In addition, zen), or block frozen. Close to the processing mail@rfexports.in some 40 ha are being used to produce black plant the company has one 180 hectare-farm, http://www.rfexports.in tiger. The company’s main products are how- along the riverbanks of tidal backwaters which General Manager: Mr Madhu B. Menon ever the feeds for shrimp and fish. is used for rice crop during the monsoon and

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Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

37

India Int. Seafood Show Chennai, India

Certified organic shrimp for European consumers

In 2008, with the support of the Swiss government and MPEDA (Marine Product Development Agency) of India, the company has been involved in an organic aquaculture project for Established in 1998 Jagadeesh Marine producing fresh water organic shrimp (scam­Exports is a family business involved in the pi). In 2009 the first container with organic field of aquaculture located in the heart of the produce was exported to Europe and this year shrimp farming region in the state of Andhra the production is expected to reach 15 tonnes.

Pradesh. The company is run by a manage- In the future the production is set to reach 80ment team which mixes experience with youth, 100 tonnes which will bring profitability and including people with work experiences in the will motivate farmers to grow organic shrimps, US and Europe. The combination of Jagadeesh due to the premium price.

Marine’s proximity to the shrimp farms as well as state of the art technology, together with Jagadeesh Marine Exports qualified personnel ensures the quality and 1-174, Komarada Road, Rayalam Village freshness of products.

Bhimavaram 534208

The cold storage capacity of 1200 tonnes of finished product supports the output of the processing equipment: plate freezers of 20 tonnes per day, an IQF machine and cooking line each of 8 tonnes per day. In addition, there is a flake ice machine with a capacity of 50 tonnes per day. The in-house laboratory for micro-biology testing is manned by highly qualified and experienced personnel. A fleet of insulated and refrigerated vehicles ensures the transportation of raw materials and final products to the loading port. Jagadeesh Marine works under strict HACCP and GMP regulations and has been accredited for its quality exports by several international organizations: BRC, Naturland, US-FDA and the EU.

India Tel: +91 8816 227123 Fax: +918816 227120 contact@jmexports.com http://www.jmexports.com Managing Director: Mr. Jagadish Thota

The company’s turnover is around EUR 5 million per year on 135 tonnes a month on average. Exports are made under the own company brands; those are: “KVM GOLD” for beheaded black tiger shrimp and “KVM” for all the other species of fish and shrimp. Products are exported block or individual frozen, according to the customers’ requirements.

Since 2003 the company is approved for export to the EU. The managing director feels however that sometimes exporting to the EU is a challenging task, due to the strict compliance with regulations.

Although the company’s output is almost exclusively for export, a new product for the local market has been developed, ready-tocook, IQF shrimp which is distributed to supermarkets in the Chennai area. The director is currently concentrating on the export markets; however, he is aware of the growth opportunities that India will offer in the future.

Quality at a The raw material used is exclusively domescompetitive price tic, and it consists of catches made along the K.V. Marine Exports sends weekly deliveries south-western coast as well as farmed black of 30-40 species of fish and shrimp to Japan, tiger shrimp which is bought from individwhich is the company’s main market with ual farmers through different buying agreearound 60% of all exports comprising mainly ments. The company has its own collection farmed and sea-caught black tiger shrimp. centres for raw material located within a radius of 200 km from the processing plant, enabling a quick delivery of the material to the processing factory.

Jagadeesh Marine will focus on the production of organic shrimp due to increasing demand on European markets.

38 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

A quarter of all exports go to Europe, 10% to the Middle East and the remaining 5% to the USA.

The raw material is brought chilled from the collection centres, afterwards it is de-iced, washed with clean treated water coming from a reverse osmosis plant, weighed and again iced and stored in chilled room. After the primary processing phase, where beheading, peeling, deveining, etc. are done, the raw material is again washed with treated water, iced and sent to different processing rooms. Here the main operations take place, e.g. grading, weighing, setting and glazing. Finally the products are frozen till the core temperature of minus 18 degrees is reached. The last step of the process is packing as per the customers’ requirements (typically in polyethylene and cardboard boxes) after which the final product is kept in the cold store till shipment is done in rewww.eurofishmagazine.com

News 2010 frigerated containers. The company has its own ice machines which provide 20 tonnes of ice flakes per day, and 4 tonnes of ice in blocks. The quick freezing unit has a capacity of 5 tonnes. The cold storage for finished products can store up to 500 tonnes. The company has implemented HACCP systems, GMP and SSOP. Quality control is a constant preoccupation of the management team. K.V. Marine Exports employs around 300 people, including the collecting centers. The processing facilities are manned on average by 150 people.

K.V. Marine Exports 61, Venkatesa Street, Chintadripet Chennai 600002 India Tel: +91 44 28456020 Fax: +91 44 27474401 kvm@eth.net http://www.kvmarine.com Chief Executive: Mr. K.V.V. Mohanan

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K.V. Marine Exports processes and exports shrimp and fish to markets in Japan, Europe and the Middle East.

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

39

Ukraine

The Ukrainian fishery industry

Steep increase in seafood imports

The Ukrainian fishery industry used to play an important role in the Soviet economy as part of the fisheries network of the USSR. The activities of the industry on Ukrainian territory included fishing and fish processing; stock management and conservation; pond and cage aquaculture; selection breeding; research and development; multilevel training and professional development; navigation safety system; implementing international fishing policy and fishing management in inland waters, the territorial sea, the EEZ, on the continental shelf, as well as in distant waters and coastal waters of other states.

A

fter the break-up of the USSR, a painful transformation took place when the separate elements of the Soviet fishery industry in Ukraine combined into a single fisheries network. The changes seemed to occur in tougher conditions than in other post-Soviet countries, state assistance to the industry was minimized or sometimes altogether lacking. Unlike under the earlier regime, today almost all fisheries businesses in the Ukraine are private. Only higher

educational institutions, research institutes, and sea ports still belong to the state. There are also a few public companies engaged in breeding fish for restocking purposes. The main executive body for fisheries today is the State Committee of Fisheries (SCF). Its primary objective is to ensure implementation of the state policy in the industry. The industry now plays an important role in the Ukrainian economy and supplies the population with fish and seafood which are an essential part

of a modern diet. The SCF coordinates the activities of public companies and institutions.

Fisheries is a significant employer All in all, more than 30 thousand people are employed in the fish industry. They work for fishing companies, state-owned marine fishing ports, and research institutes dealing with water resources management. In addition, there are about 160 companies engaged

in the production of fish and seafood preserves. The range of fish and seafood products is about 3,000 items. Several companies which started as importers, but which now not only have large and modern cold stores, but also produce ready-to-eat products, play a significant role in the Ukrainian fishery industry.

At the beginning of the 90s, more than 80% of the fish and seafood were harvested in other countries’ EEZs and in distant waters and only 20% in the Ukrainian EEZ, the territorial sea, and inland waters. Today about 500 companies catch fish and other water resources in Ukrainian waters.

On average in 2004-2009, the annual catch of fish and other water resources was 242.7 thousand tonnes, of which the share of distant water fishing was 64% of the total Volumes of deep sea catches considerably influence the total catch and the fluctuations primarily reflect the dynamics of distant water fishing. Thus the increase in the total catch during the period can be explained by the increase in the catch by distant water ships as they were modernised by their owners. Fishing in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and inland fishing remain stable at about 55 thousand tonnes and 40 thousand tonnes respectively.

The lowest total catch of about 214 thousand tonnes was in 2007, and the highest catch of 266 thousand tonnes – in 2005. During 2009, preliminary estimates of catches have been generally encouraging and the total catch is estimated to be higher than in the previous year.

Aquaculture production stable The production of fish preserves has been growing and today amounts to about 50% of the total volume of processed fish 40 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

A more detailed analysis shows the following trends. The share of seafood (primarily invertewww.eurofishmagazine.com

35,4

Total catch, seafood and crustaceans

Total catch, fish and other water bioresources Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin Inland fishing

226

266

228,8

213,7

244,5

Catches of fish and seafood and crustaceans in 2004-2008.

138,1

167

145,3

52,5 35,7

61,2 37,4

46,8 36,7

300

123,5

225 Catches of fish and other seafood

43,9 43,2

148,3 Ukraine

2004

Total catch, fish 55 Total catch, seafood and crustaceans 41,2

Catches of fish, seafood and crustaceans

Catches of fish and other water resources 2004-2008, thousand tonnes Catches of fish 2004 and seafood crustaceans in 2004-2008.

2004 - 2008 in 1,000intonnes - 2008 inand 1,000 tonnes 300

150

300

225

75

225

150

0

75

0

2004

Total catch, fish

2004

2005

2006

Total catch, fish and other Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin Inland fishing

2007 2008 2004 Total fish catch 226 water bioresources Fish catch, inland waters 35,4 Aquaculture production 26

150 2006

2005

2007

2008

75 Total catch, seafood and crustaceans 0 2006 2004

2005

2007

2005

2006

2008

2007

266

228,8

213,7

244,5

37,4

36,7

43,2

41,2

Total catch, fish

2008

Total catch, seafood and crustaceans

26,1 20,7 20,6 20,1 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total fish 213,7 thousand tonnes. At the same catch liminary estimates,226 frozen fish 266of meat 228,8 and meat products fell 244,5 Aquaculture production catch, versus total fish catch. time, the production of fish pre- Fish production grew in 2009.

Most by 37%, milk and milk products inland waters 35,4 37,4 36,7 43,2 41,2 300 serves has been constantly grow- Aquaculture of the production is provided by by 34.8%, eggs by 37.5%, fish by 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 20,7 20,6 20,1 ing. On average the share of fish production companies located in26the234,3 city of26,181%, fruit and vegetables by 49%.220,5 195,4 202,2 198,4 and seafood preserves is about Sevastopol – 31%, Zaporozhye At the same 225 35,4 31,3 26,6 time, the consump15,4 24

brates) in the total catch of fish and seafood was insignificant and on average equalled 11.3%. This can be explained by the fact that Total catch, fish Ukraineand has limited access to reTotal catch, seafood crustaceans sources like Northern shrimp in 50% of the total volume of proc- District – 9% and Kherson District tion of bread products, animal Aquaculture production versus total fish catch. the region regulated by NAFO, by essed fish. Fish150 preserves produc- – 3%. fat, cereals, beans, and potatoes 300 Catches of fish and seafood and crustaceans in 2004-2008. the absence of demand for prod- tion is distributed in the Ukraine increased. The low levels of fish 300 ucts made of Antarctic krill on in the following way: 24% in the The level of fish consumption in and seafood consumption were 75 225 has stabilized at 16-17 traditional markets (Ukraine and city of Sevastopol, 21% in the the country significantly influenced by the Russia), and also by climatic pe- Crimean Autonomous Republic, kilos per person a year. However, catch volumes of Ukrainian fish225 culiarities in Ukraine where the 18% in the Odessa between ing ships. Before 1991 consump0 District, 7% in 1501993 and 1995 several 2004 and 2005negative 2006changes 2007were 2008 resource is limited. According to the Dnepropetrovsk Region, observed tion of fish and fish products was 150 Ukrainian statistics, aquaculture 3% each in the Kharkov, Cher- in peoples food consumption stable at the level of more than 18 TotalDistricts. fish catch catch,results inland waters production in 2004-2008 was sta- kassy, and Kiev During habits. 75Fish Research and kg per person a year. The lowest Aquaculture production 75 ble at the level of 21-22 thousand the analysed period volumes of statistical data showed that the fish consumption was recorded in tonnes. At the same time it should fish meal production were not consumption of important food 1994 and equalled 3.5 kg per per0 2005 2008 be stable and fell from 9.7 thousand groups dropped2004 drastically in the 2006 son. In2007 the following years con0 noted that the figures do not 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 include production by small fish tonnes in 2004 to 3.7 thousand country, in particular the major Azov-Black sumption Sea hasBasin slowly increased.

Distant water fishing Total fish catch 57 Fish catch, inland waters farms. Unfortunately, statistical tonnes in 2006. According to pre- sources of protein. Consumption Consumption of this or that26 prodAquaculture production Total catch, fish Total catch, seafood and crustaceans recording of production by small uct depends on the culture, tradiaquaculture companies is diffitions and habits of the population A structuralof analysis of fishseafood and seafood production Analysis fish and production cult in2004 many countries.

It should as well as on income levels. In 2005 2006 2007 2008 be mentioned that not all fish seaDistant water Ukraine fishing the highest fish andAzov-Black Se Total fish catch 226 harvested266 213,7 244,5 57 can be traced and seafood outside 228,8 food consumption 7 % Fish catch, is transported to 36,7 to the regions which are richer or inland watersUkrainian waters 35,4 37,4 43,2 41,2 10 % where fish is a traditional part of Aquaculture Ukraine. Part of the volumes is exA structural analysis of fish and seafood production production ported to other 26 countries 26,1 20,6 20,1 directly 20,7 the diet. In 2008, fish consumpfrom the fishing grounds. tion was higher in Donetsk (12%), 57 % Kiev (12.4%), Dnepropetrovsk 26 % Aquaculture production versus total fish catch.

7 % Increase in production (8%), Odessa (6.5%) Districts and 10 % 300 of fish preserves Crimea. The lowest fish consumption was recorded in Chernovtzy, 225 The volume of processed fish Zakarpatskaya, Volynskaya, and 57 % 26 % products in the country has reIvano-Frankovsk Districts where Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin mained at the same level, except it was less than 2% of total fish 150 Inland waters Aquaculture in 2005 when the figure was 226.8 consumption.

75 www.eurofishmagazine.com

1986-1990

1991

1992

Distant1993 water fishing1994

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010 1995 1996 Azov-Black Sea Basin

41 1997

Ukraine

fish, fresh or chilled fish, and fish fillets increased. Traditionally Ukraine exports fish preserves (subgroup 1604), ready-to-eat or canned fish – sardines, sardinella, kilka, and sprat to the Russian Federation. These deliveries amounted to 1637.2 tonnes or USD14,469 thousand, amounting to 27% of the total exports. Fresh and chilled fish was mostly exported to the Russian Federation directly from the fishing grounds and insignificant volumes of Black Sea turbot were exported to Turkey.

Imports exceed domestic production and have been growing significantly. Processors make a variety of products from the imported fish for the domestic market including smoked salmon as shown here.

Imports exceed domestic production Today the supply of fish and fish products is sufficient and is constantly growing. Forty percent of the fish and seafood supply for fish processing is provided by local catches and production, while 60% is based on imported raw materials and semi-finished products. Import duties on fish were changed in 1999 as a result of Ukrainian accession to the WTO. Ukraine is a net importer of fish and seafood. FAO data on world exports of the main commodity groups show that the share of fish exports in the world is the greatest and significantly exceeds exports of coffee, tea, bananas, tobacco, and sugar. During the last 30 years fish export volumes increased from 5 to 18 million tonnes, and in 2005 world fish export volumes amounted to USD 78.4 billion.

Exports of fish and fish products from Ukraine have been insignificant over the last ten years and consist mostly of ready-to-eat fish

Freezing units on board a Ukrainian vessel. Fish exported directly from the fishing grounds are not included in the figures as the product does not cross the Ukrainian customs border.

products and fish preserves. This figure has been growing constantly and, as estimated, more than doubled in the period 2005-2009. A slight but stable growth in terms of volume is observed in commodity group 307. At the same time, it should be noted that the figures do not record fish exports directly from the fishing grounds because the product does not cross the Ukrainian customs border. Fish harvested in Ukrainian waters was not exported, except for insig-

42 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

nificant volumes. Fish was mostly exported from fishing grounds (Central and Eastern Atlantic, Mauritanian waters) or from ports where Ukrainian ships were temporarily stationed (Las Palmas, Spain and Nuadibu, Mauritania).

Russian Federation a traditional destination for Ukrainian exports According to preliminary estimates, in 2009 exports of frozen

In 2008 there was a 50% increase in the volumes of imports compared with 2005. The main imports over the last five years were fresh or chilled fish, except for fish fillets and other fish meat (group 0302), frozen fish, except for fish fillets and other fish meat (group 0303), and fish fillets and other fish meat (minced meat including) fresh, chilled, or frozen (group 0304). More than 60% of these products are processed by Ukrainian companies in order to diversify the range of fish and seafood pro­ducts for consumption.

In 2009 fish and seafood imports in to Ukraine considerably decreased compared to 2008 in terms of both volume and value.

Fish and seafood is mostly imported to Ukraine from Norway, Estonia and Vietnam. Also among significant sources of fish imports are Iceland, the USA, Latvia, Canada, China, and the UK. Ukraine mostly imports commodity groups 303 and 304 (frozen fish and fish fillets). The main imported species are herring, sardines, sardinella, and mackerel. A big share in the imports is represented by frozen fillets of freshwater species, herring, and Alaska pollack delivered from Vietnam, Norway, Iceland, and other countries. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Inland waters 0

2004

Aquaculture

2006 Total fish Total catch, fish Total catch, seafood and crustaceans catch Distant 226water fishing 266 228,8 Fish catch, 2004 57 2005 2006 2007 2008 inland Total fishwaters 35,4 37,4 36,7 catch 226 266 228,8 213,7 244,5 Aquaculture Fish catch, 1986-1990 1991 1992 1993 inland waters 35,4 37,4 36,7 43,2 41,2 production 26 26,1 Aquaculture 18,5 12,2 7,3 3,7 A structural analysis of fish and seafood production 20,7 2004

2005

2006

20052008

2007

Ukraine

Pangasius fillets dominate fillet imports

2007

2008

Azov-Black 213,7Sea Basin 244,5

43,2

1994

20,6 3,5

Aquaculture production vs. total fish catch

production

26

26,1

20,7

20,6

20,1

41,2

Inland waters 26

1995

20,1

1996 3,6

1997 4,3

seafood harvesting and breeding has to meet certain requirements Aquaculture production versus total fish catch.

300 to ensure the safety of processed Consumption of fish and fish products in Ukraine in 1991-2008 (per person a year) 7 % For the first time in many years Vi- 20 225 30010 % products. Quality is a key factor etnam became the leader in supof competitiveness. Producers 150 plying fish fillets to the Ukrainian need to prove to consumers that 225 market, with more than 50% of the 15 75 quality controls during produc57 % total imported fillets. Vietnamese tion guarantee the product’s 26 % 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 150 fillets are mainly from pangasius. quality and safety, that good raw fish catch Fish catch, inland waters Ukraine also imports ready-to- 10 Total materials were used, appropriate Aquaculture production eat and preserved fish – sardines, processing methods and storage 75 sprat, and surimi products. Main regimes were followed. Producers Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin Inland waters Aquaculture 5 exporting countries here are Estoat the national, regional, or local7 57 26 10 Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin 0 nia, Russia, and China. The share level bear responsibility for the waters Aquaculture AInland structural analysis of fish and seafood production 2006 2004 2005 2007 2008 of imports from the EU-countries, quality of food products. Ukrain0 Norway, Island and Faroe Islands 1986-1990 1992 fish producers 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 ian2006 2008 started getting 7 % Total10 % fish catch Fish catch, inland waters is 72% of the total imports. Imaccess to the European market Aquaculture production ports from America amount on in 2006 when the first Ukrainian Ohne1993 Titel 1 1994 1986-1990 1991 1992 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 57 % average to 16%, Asia – 6.4%, the companies were 26 % 18,5 12,2 7,3 3,7 3,5 3,6 4,3 5 included5,9by the 7,3 Consumption of fish and fish products CIS countries – 3.1%, Africa – 1.7%, European Commission in the list 1991-2008 per person / year in kg Australia and Oceania – 0.5%. of third countries that are allowed Distant water2004 fishing Azov-Black Inla 2005 2006 Sea Basin2007 2008 Consumption of fish and fish products in Ukraine in 1991-2008 (per person a year) to export bivalves, echinoderms, 57 26 Distant water fishing Azov-Black Sea Basin Fish and crustaceans, shellfish Aquaculture Ukraine imports fish and seafood tunicates, sea gastropods, and fish 20Inland waters and other water invertebrates 260 370,8 332,7 to which it does not have access products to the 405,7 European eco-507,6 Fish, frozen, excluding fish fillets and including herring, mackerel, and A 1986-1990 nomic zone.

In 2009, some structural of fish and1994seafood 1991 analysis 1992 1993 1995 production 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 more 2003 20 other fish meat of heading 0304: 239,3 330,3 262,4 295,4 348,4 15 18,5 12,2 7,3 3,7 3,5 3,6 4,3 5 5,9 7,3 8,4 11 11,9 12 Alaska pollock. It also Fish imports Ukrainian companies were added fillets and other fish meat (whether aquaculture products which can-minced), to 50,3 the list.

Consumption of fish and fish or products in Ukraine in 1991-2008 (per person a year) or not fresh, chilled frozen: 14 32,1 78,9 123,7 10 20 or in brine; smoked not be produced domestically Fish, dried, salted 7 % fish, whether or15not cooked10 % before or such as salmonids, perch-like This decision by the European during the smoking process 4,9 3,7 6,4 4,3 fishes, pangasius, and shrimps.

Commission gives Ukrainian fish 3,8 5 10 Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and Herring and herring fillets com-substitutes prepared from fish processors an opportunity to encaviar 5 prise almost half of Ukrainian ter61,5 the European market. eggs: 38,1 52,5 57,7 In addi- 64,2 57 % 26 % imports in volume terms. Flours, The dia-meals 0and tion, it is a way to modernise the pellets, of fish or of 0 1986-1990 1992 other 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 1986-1990 1992or1994 1996aquatic 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 crustaceans, molluscs gram shows Ukrainian fish imeconomy, attract foreign invest7,5 7,4 4,4 and the latest 2,3 technolo- 3,6 Ohne Titel 1 port by species. Herring invertebrates together ments Ohne Titel by 1 commodity groups Ukrainian exports with herring fillets has the biggest gies, create new jobs, and raise 2004 2007 2008 in2005tonnes2006 share of 38%. This product is tra- Fish and crustaceans, shellfish the competitiveness of Ukrainian and other water invertebrates 260Diagramm 370,8 332,7 405,7 507,6 7 ditional and popular among the Fish, frozen, excluding fish fillets and producers.

Entering the European 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 other fish meat of heading 0304: 239,3 330,3 262,4 295,4 348,4 Distant water Azov-Black Sea Basin Fish fillets and other fish meat (whether fishing 600 population. Then comes hake and market is of great importance for Fish and crustaceans, shellfish or not minced), fresh, chilled or frozen: 14 32,1 50,3 78,9 123,7 Inland waters Aquaculture Fish, dried, salted or in brine; smoked and other water invertebrates other whitefish – 10%, Baltic sprat producers as a source 260 370,8 332,7 405,7Ukrainian 507,6 fish, whether or not cooked before or during the smoking process 4,9 3,7 6,4 4,3 3,8 excluding fish fillets and – 6%, mackerel and capelin – Fish, 5% frozen, of experience and practical skills Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and caviar substitutes prepared from fish other fish meat of heading 0304: 239,3 330,3 262,4 295,4 348,4 450 eggs: 38,1 52,5 61,5 57,7 64,2 each. to compete with other countries’ Flours, meals and pellets, fish or(whether of Fish fillets and other fish ofmeat crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic or not minced), 14 50,3 78,9producers, 123,7to develop and impleinvertebratesfresh, chilled or frozen: 7,5 7,4 4,4 32,1 2,3 3,6 1986-1990 1992 1993 1994 1995ment production 1996 Fish, dried, salted or in brine;1991 smoked Ukrainian and 1997 commer- 1998 300 fish, whether or not cooked before or 18,5 12,2 7,3 3,7 3,5 3,6 4,3 5 Diagramm 7 processors approvedduring the smoking600process cial strategy with focus on world 4,9 3,7 6,4 4,3 3,8 for export to the EU Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and market conditions. At the same caviar substitutes450 prepared from fish time, experience of cooperation 150 of fish and fish products in52,5 Ukraine in61,5 1991-200857,7 (per person eggs: Consumption 38,1 64,2a year) Membership of the European Unat international markets should 300 Flours, meals and 20 pellets, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic ion is a key objective of Ukrainlead to quality improvements in 150 invertebrates 7,5 7,4 4,4 2,3satisfying 3,6 ian foreign policy and a priority the requirements of do0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 15 for the Ukrainian fishery indus0 mestic consumers.

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 try. In this connection a burning Diagramm 7 Fish and crustaceans, shellfish and other water invertebrates issue is the competitiveness of Fish and crustaceans, shellfish other V. Chernik, J. Danchuk, Fish, frozen, excluding fish fillets and other fish meatand of heading 0304: water invertebrates Fish600 fillets 10and other fish meat (whether or not minced), fresh, chilled or frozen: Fish, frozen, excluding fish fillets and other fishthemeat of headingL.0304: Ukrainian fish products on the Avrutova, State Committee Fish, dried, salted or in brine; smoked fish, whether or not cooked before or during smoking process Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and caviar substitutes prepared from fish eggs: Fish fillets and other fish meat (whether not minced), fresh, chilled of orFisheries frozen:of Ukraine international market. Fish and Flours, meals and pellets, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs or other or aquatic invertebrates 450 5 salted or in brine; smoked fish, whether or not cooked before or during the smok Fish, dried, www.eurofishmagazine.com Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and caviar substitutes prepared from fish eggs: Flours, meals and pellets, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates 2004 - 2008 in 1,000 tonnes

Aquaculture production versus total fish catch.

300 0

Ukraine

Ukrmoreprodukt produces sushi boxes for the retail sector in the Ukraine, an activity it started about 10 years ago.

was necessary to adapt the vocabulary associated with sushi to tempt customers. We focused exclusively on the fact that the fish was fresh, he says, and did not mention that it is often eaten raw.

Working for the retail sector the company realised that shelflife was an important factor. All the fish and seafood used in the sushi boxes is prepared in some way to increase the shelflife. For example, the shrimp is cooked, the unagi eel is fried, and the salmon is marinated.

Franchise agreements with restaurants

Ukrmoreprodukt

A market for sushi built from scratch

Sushi today is well established in most European countries where sushi restaurants have existed for at least the last 20 years and where sushi bars, cafes, and take-aways have been mushrooming for the last 10. The popularity of sushi, typically a piece of raw fish placed on a bed of rice, is such that a tray of sushi can now be bought in supermarkets.

I

n the Ukraine, Ukrmoreprodukt began producing sushi boxes for the retail sector about 10 years ago. At the time sushi was virtually unheard of in the Ukraine and even in Kiev there were only a couple of restaurants serving sushi. The company’s task was two-fold, not only to make a high quality product, but also to convince consumers that it was something to try. Yuri Zakharchuk, deputy director at Ukrmoreprodukt recalls how it 44 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

Ukrmoreprodukt Company Fact File Ukrmoreprodukt Bondarsky Pereulok 3 04073 Kiev Ukraine Tel./Fax: +380 44 501 53 94 office@sushi-express.com.ua www.sushi-express.com.ua Deputy director: Yuri Zakharchuk Products: Sushi boxes in MAP for the retail sector

Facilities: Two highly automated production units in Kiev and Kirovograd Raw material supplies from: USA, China, Thailand Brands: Izumi Sushi Studio, Sushi Studio, and Sushi Express Ancillary business: Two ­restaurants, five franchises Employees: 140 Turnover (2009): EUR6.5m

Manufacturing sushi boxes is the main activity at Ukrmoreprodukt, but the company also has a secondary line of business which is franchise agreements with restaurants. Under these agreements the restaurant is eligible to use the brand Sushi Studio and sources the ingredients from Ukrmoreprodukt, while the company provides training to the staff at the restaurant, arranges the kitchen, and generally provides any technical assistance needed by the restaurant to start serving sushi. Currently these agreements are in place with five restaurants located in the regions around Kiev. Urkmoreprodukt also owns two sushi restaurants in Kiev called Izumi, where they serve traditional sushi using raw fish. Mr Zakharchuk explains that making sushi in a restaurant requires a very short preparation time and the product is consumed immediately unlike the sushi sold in boxes to the retail chains. As long as the fish is fresh there is no risk to the consumer. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Ukraine

For the retail operations Ukrmorepodukt sources the raw materials primarily from China, Thailand and the United States.

In some cases the material is sourced directly from the producer while in others it is obtained from local importers. This includes the seaweed (nori), fish such as fried unagi eel, shrimp, salmon, trout, as well as cheaper species like mackerel and tilapia. Getting reliable raw material at reasonable prices from local providers can be difficult and the company is therefore looking to diversify its sources. One of the shareholders is based in Canada and he is looking for suppliers in order to build a stock of frozen seafood which will make the company less dependent on local sources.

production as well and the company started another facility in Kirovograd.

The ingredients in the box including the soya sauce, the wasabi, the ginger, and the chopsticks are imported from China

Adapting products to market demands

by Ukrmoreprodukt in its sushi boxes.

Apart from the fish, the other ingredients that are served in the sushi boxes include small quantities of soya, wasabi paste, pickled ginger and a set of chopsticks. A typical sushi box available at a supermarket will contain 200-230 g of sushi usually using shrimp, salmon, and fried eel combined with rice and seaweed. We have discovered that this combination of seafood is currently the most popular, says Mr Zakharchuk, but we also vary it at least twice a year to try out new products and combinations.

In the past the company has also used bivalve molluscs and octopus in its sushi boxes, but then replaced them when sales did not take off. The company monitors the market very closely for tastes and adapts its products accordingly. Tuna, for example, is one of the most common fish to be used in sushi, but in the Ukraine apparently it is not very popular and so is not used

High tech production of sushi boxes

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The sushi boxes are sealed trays filled with modified atmosphere which made a big difference to

sales when they were introduced a few years ago. With the increase in the shelf life from three to five days it suddenly became possible to distribute the boxes to Donetsk, Lugansk, in the Crimea region and other areas. This increase in the distribution possibilities made it necessary to increase

The boxes that remain unsold after being in the supermarket for five days are returned to the company, a practice that the company is not happy with. Here the supplier carries all the risk, says Mr Zakharchuk, he pays up front for the imports, yet receives payment in turn 45-60 days after the product is sold, and if it is not sold he has to deal with it. This ties up working capital and inhibits the development of new ideas. We were very pleased when Auchan, a French chain, started in the Ukraine, because they do not return the unsold boxes. Last year the company started a catering service delivering sushi to homes and restaurants. The sushi is prepared at two special production units where the sushi is prepared by hand. The two units are located on either side of the river that divides Kiev. This arrangement enables the company to deliver rapidly to the entire city even if the bridges crossing the river are clogged with traffic.

Fish and seafood used in the sushi is cooked and the box is packed under modified atmosphere giving a shelf life of 5 days.

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pathogen combat

PathogenCombat: Reducing food-borne diseases in Europe

Rapid and meaningful detection methods

In the context of the integrated EU research project PathogenCombat a working group headed by the Italian scientist Professor Luca Cocolin has developed new techniques for detecting food-borne pathogens. The approach is faster, more specific and more informative than the methods used so far, because it allows statements to be made on the presence of virulence genes and expression of functions relevant to virulence and persistence in the food chain.

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o food producer wants to be involved in any scandal resulting from the fact that his products are perhaps not safe enough or might even endanger consumers’ health. The consequences of health problems for the consumer are, however, no less serious than the economic consequences for the company concerned. Products that are not trusted are difficult to sell and stand only a poor chance of success in the face of the harsh competition on the market. All companies working within the European food industry thus spend a lot of money and go to considerable effort to rule out

or at least limit such risks. They commission laboratories to test their products and carry out routine checks themselves. Samples are regularly taken for analysis.

But, as Professor Mogens Jakobsen, the project co-ordinator of PathogenCombat, says, the result is sobering: “Despite significant investment, the incidence of food derived disease is still too high in the EU. Further, there is no sign of a reduction in the number of incidences.”

This is partially due to the fact that the current testing methods are neither fast nor precise enough to enable adequate statements to be made on how

46 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

dangerous any pathogens that have been found actually are.

Pathogens are omnipresent threats which have to be fought throughout the entire food chain. This is the objective of the European research project PathogenCombat which unites the specialist competences of researchers and industrial representatives from 16 European states and Australia. Within the project, scientists from 24 reputed universities, institutes and other research facilities, 3 industrial partners and 17 small and medium sized enterprises (SME) co-operate as partners on a multidisciplinary basis beyond their national borders. The

Companies working within the European food industry spend a lot of money and go to considerable effort to rule out or at least limit the risk of health problems arising from their products.

concept of the project is that the food industry should be provided with means and methods to produce food free from pathogens.

Together with other achievements such as closing the gap between technology and hygiene, it is becoming increasingly clear that PathogenCombat contributes substantially towards improving effectiveness and uniformity in reducing the prevalence of food-borne pathogens in European food and creates an important foundation for scientifically based food safety management in Europe.

New methods for detection of pathogens in food The project has obtained new information and new results as to how pathogens behave in the food chain and how they can be detected by rapid and specific www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ pathogen combat ] methods which do not only report numbers, but also estimate the pathogens’ virulence. Up to now laboratory tests have usually all been carried out following the same pattern. Samples taken from the processing area or from the products themselves are placed on specific culture media, which are usually in Petri dishes, and then put into an incubator for several days.

From the number, shape and size of the colonies that develop from individual bacteria on the culture medium (colony forming units, cfu/cm2, cfu/g or ml of food) the laboratory can later on draw conclusions about the species and quantity of pathogens in the samples. However, these conventional analyses, which

still constitute the officially approved “state of the art”, unfortunately entail some serious weaknesses. The analyses are relatively time-consuming and not very specific, and – more importantly – they allow no statements to be made about whether virulence genes in the pathogens are actually expressed, i.e. active, or about how safe the product is likely to be at the time of its consumption. They also overlook pathogens not able to grow in a Petri dish, but still able to cause disease, i.e. false negative results are obtained.

Luca Cocolin and his team decided there had to be a faster, simpler and more precise way to carry out these tests and they got down to work to try and find

it. Faster and simpler meant, in particular, being able to do without the time-consuming and laborious method that necessitated the use of culture media in Petri dishes. And what could be more precise than the identification of genetic molecules that are specific to, and thus characteristic of, every species of living being, including food-borne pathogens? In other words, if the presence of sections of certain DNA or RNA molecules could be identified in the sample, it would not only be proof that the pathogens were present but one would also know what risks they posed. And even more: in a second step one could try and find out which of the foodborne pathogen’s genes was actually active. Is it just the nor-

mal “housekeeping” genes with which bacteria organise their lives, or is it perhaps those genes that give the pathogen its potential to make the consumer ill. If such statements were possible they would enable much more precise forecasting of possible risks from food.

Quantitative amplification of genetic molecules Based on these ideas it was possible to devise a basic path for solving the problem. The researchers chose five pathogens as model organisms – pathogens that are considered to be persistent and dangerous in the dairy, meat and other sections of the food industry: Campylobacter

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[ pathogen combat ] jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, Shiga-like toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Hepatitis E virus (HEV) and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). At first the aim was to develop a precise technique that would enable reliable identification of the small quantities of genetic molecules that are to be found in a sample at all.

Normally, the number of pathogens in a food is already tiny and the genetic substance in turn accounts for only a fraction of this. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR,) genetic molecules like DNA or RNA can easily be amplified, but in this case the technique had to remain quantitative so that it would be possible to later on determine the

48 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

exact number of pathogens. As an example, Luca Cocolin and his team succeeded in developing quantitative PCR (qPCR) protocols in order to detect, identify and quantify Listeria ­monocytogenes.

Campylobacter jejuni was one of the five pathogens chosen by researchers in the PathogenCombat project for their persistence and the threat they pose to the dairy, meat and other sectors of the food industry.

The technique does not only offer the necessary accuracy, but is also much faster than the earlier methods used. The detection limit of the methods was 103 colony forming unit (cfu)/g or ml of food without enrichment and 1-10 cfu/g or ml after an overnight incubation. The method developed was used to detect, quantify and control this microorganism in a dairy company. From the results obtained it can be highlighted that the application of qPCR can have an

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important impact on controlling and managing the presence of pathogens during production of foodstuffs. It becomes obvious that qPCR could really help to find out where the contamination starts, resulting in the presence of L. monocytogenes in the final product. The application of molecular methods represents a real advantage for food producing companies, because in a relatively short time (about 18-24 h) they can get an indication of the presence of pathogens in their plants and take appropriate measures in order to eliminate the possible risk associated.

ther: even the genes of different strains of a pathogen can react differently. This makes it very difficult to predict the risk they pose because depending on the environmental conditions one and the same pathogen can be virulent or not.

Profiling of expression of virulence genes

Luca Cocolin and his team have initial achievements to report on the use of a DNA microarray for Listeria, developed by Congen, a German biotechnology SME Partner of the consortium, which reacts highly specifically to 54 virulence associated genes.

The second objective of the project, i.e. the assessment of virulence (the ability of the pathogens to overcome the host organism’s defence mechanisms and cause illness) was much more difficult to achieve. The presence of pathogens alone is not sufficient for making reliable statements on the risks they pose. The pathogens’ concrete effect also depends on external conditions, such as on the environment in which they exist. How active which genes are is partly dependent on factors like osmotic and acidic stress to which the pathogens are subject.

Texts have shown that certain virulence and stress genes can display different reactions depending on the “food matrix”, i.e. foodstuff (in the project mainly dairy and meat products are used as model systems, but the techniques and systems developed can be applied to all food products and could be used by all food producing companies) and on the environment (storage temperature). And furwww.eurofishmagazine.com

The results obtained with statistical analysis highlight that virulence-associated genes are overexpressed under acidic stress conditions and suppressed under osmotic conditions in which genes mostly related to survival and replication-maintenance functions are up-regulated.

This makes it possible to control the pathogenic risks of processes and products in the food industry quickly, simply and reliably. And even if we are only at the beginning of developments that is remarkable progress in that it makes our foods safer.

However, it could take some time for the industry to become aware of the new findings this project has produced. Dissemination of the results to the food industry has been, and still is, a major challenge. Many SMEs are very small companies who have always produced their products the same way and it can be difficult to change their behaviour and attitude. But it is also a matter of informing the regulatory agencies.

Only through their acknowledgement of a need for altered or new techniques can the achievements of the PathogenCombat projects be a success. mk

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The fish are pushed to one side of the net and then hauled onto the workboat.

Cobia farming in Vietnam

Production to grow rapidly at Marine Farms

in Scotland, has started two cobia farms, one in Belize in Central America, and the other in Vietnam. Both are producing cobia, based on Norwegian salmon farming technology. The volumes currently being farmed are relatively small, around 1,000 – 1,500 tonnes per year, however, from this year production is set to rapidly increase. Although technically a pelagic species with a high oil content, cobia will compete on the whitefish market where traditional wild-caught species are becoming ever scarcer.

Marine Farms began farming cobia in cages off the coast of central Vietnam in 2005. The early trials proved so successful that the 0 months 6 months 12 monthscompany18ismonths 24 months now regularly flying For years there have been predictions that the fast-growing marine aquaculture species, 0 Seabream/seabass 0,1 0,2 consignments0,3of fresh cobia to0,5 cobia (Rachycentron canadum) , is about to take off, but so far0 it has been also started to pro-3,0 0,2 hard to spot on 0,4 Taiwan. It has2,0 Cod cess the fish for the market. If you want cobia, it seems you either have to catch it yourself (it is a great 0 0,1 0,4 2,0 Europe where it4,0 Salmon will be sold as IQF skinless loins, game fish in AustraliaCobia and southern USA), or you have to go to0 Asia. 1,2 6,0 and IQF skinless and boneless 0 months 6 months 12 months 18 months months will also cobia fillets and24portions 0 Seabream/seabass 0,1 0,2 0,3 obia has been farmed for be exported to the 0,5 USA from VietGrowth cycles by species 0 0,2 0,4 2,0 3,0 Cod more than a decade in Tainam.

Different product formats inby kg species (in kg) Growth cycles 0 0,1 0,4 2,0 4,0 Salmon wan, and is making great can be supplied to both markets 0 1,2 6,0 Cobia 6 strides in mainland China which if required. Cobia has been called harvested 25,855 tonnes in 2007, ‘tropical salmon’ because of its but the fish is being consumed versatility. The fish can be eaten Growth cycles by species (in kg) locally or in neighbouring coun- 4,5 raw, cooked in as many different 6 tries. However, that is about to ways as traditional whitefish spechange. IQF cobia loins from fish cies, barbecued, and can be hot 4,5 farmed off the coast of central Vior cold-smoked. It grows much 3 etnam will make their European faster than salmon and reaches debut at this year’s seafood show a weight of 6-7kg in a single year.

3 (ESE) in Brussels.

Cobia has a firm flesh, which 1,5 turns bright white on cooking, 1,5 Pelagic species and a mild flavour. Unlike other with high fat content whitefish species, it has an oil 0 0 content of 20%, even higher than 0 months 6 months 12 12months months 1818 months 24 months 0 months 6 months months 24 months that of salmon, so is rich in omeMarine Farms AS, the Bergen, Norway-based international fish ga-3 fatty acids.

Seabream/seabass Cod Salmon Cobia farming company which is very Seabream/seabass Cod Salmon Cobia active in seabass and seabream in Cobia is known for its very rapid growth. This graph compares growth Marine Farms Vietnam is based the Mediterranean, and salmon rates for farmed cobia, salmon, seabass/seabream and cod. in Van Hong Bay, a sparsely pop-

C

50 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

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Managing Director of Marine Farms Vietnam, Carlos Massad, shows off a fine specimen which he is bringing home for lunch.

ulated area 50km north of Nha Trang. The grow-out cages, anchored in an area of sea 300 metres from Hon Lon Island, are imported from Norway where they are used to farm salmon.

The cages, unlike those of other farmers, were strong enough to withstand a typhoon at the end of last year, while locally made wooden cages were severely damaged. There are 10 sites in Van Hong Bay, five of which are used to farm cobia while the remaining five remain fallow until the following year. Each site can contain 24 cages and Marine Farms Vietnam currently has an overall total of 52 cages.

There is also a site for a hatchery, but this won’t be built until it is strategically necessary, according to Carlos Massad, managing director of Marine Farms Vietnam. The company has its own broodstock on site and sends eggs for hatching to selected hatcheries in Vietnam bringing back fry weighing 2g each for ongrowing. The fish are given a guaranteed non-GMO pelleted feed which is imported from Canada or Chile. They are harvested on a year round basis when they have reached 5kg in weight. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Steep increase in production planned Production, which reached 500 tonnes in 2009, is predicted to hit 1,500 tonnes this year and 2,000 tonnes in 2011. In five years’ time it will be up to 4,000 tonnes, says Massad , who explains that the site has a projected maximum production of 5,000 tonnes. More grow-out sites in Vietnam are being sought, he adds. At present, the cobia are being processed

The fish are fed pelleted, non-GMO feed by a blower.

by hand and frozen at a factory about one hour’s drive from the company’s shore-based unit. This has office and storage space, and land where the grow-out cages are constructed from parts imported from Norway. Other processing facilities in central Vietnam are being evaluated.

The loins will be shipped to Scotland where they will be distributed throughout Europe by Sea Products of Scotland Ltd, the sales

and marketing arm for the Lakeland Group, the UK subsidiary of Marine Farms ASA. Erik Hempel has a long career in fisheries and aquaculture development in many countries.

He has been director of Infofish (Asia), Infopeche (Africa) and INFOSA (southern Africa). He is now ­residing in Oslo, Norway, where he runs his own consulting company, Hempel Consult. erik.hempel@hempelco.com

From the scooper, the fish is deposited on a chute, from where it goes through a pipe. At the other end of the pipe the throat is cut and the fish is bled in large tanks on deck. The dirty water is treated before it is released.

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Deepchill slurry ice is used for chilling pelagic fish in the fish hold.

valuable. The installations paid for themselves in the first six months of operation.

proc essing

Different ice fractions for specific needs

Deepchill variable state ice

Ice slurry is preserving product freshness around the world Deepchill, the trademarked name for a product developed by the Canadian company Sunwell Technologies, is a cooling and preservation medium comprised of millions of ice micro-crystals suspended in a liquid solution to form an ice slurry. The micro-crystals surround the entire surface area of the product being cooled, giving it the ability to chill at least three times faster, and store a few degrees colder for a longer period than conventional ice. The slurry also suspends and protects the product from bruising, bacterial growth and tissue degradation.

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ver the last 30 years the company’s slurry production systems have been successfully installed onboard various types of fishing vessels around the world. The installations reveal that the slurry maintains the freshness of the fish throughout the cold chain, ensures top quality product and higher yields, which translates into higher profits.

Hoki fillets retain their freshness for up to 18 hours To achieve the fastest cooling in the fish receiving pond or the chilling tank, the ice concentration in the slurry is often set around 20%.

Systems serving this purpose can

be found, for example, onboard freezer trawlers of Sealord, New Zealand installed in the mid 1990s.

The vessels catch hoki, a species that quickly deteriorates at higher temperatures. As with any filleting vessel, fish move through the factory at a relatively constant rate, yet they are dumped into the receiving ponds every two to three hours. This results in the product remaining in the ponds for several hours. Without cooling, the temperature increases and quality drops dramatically.

A Deepchill system with 16 mt daily ice capacity and 4.5 cubic metre storage capacity was designed and integrated into the vessels’ factory decks. The slurry with 25% ice concentration is delivered into

52 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

four fish receiving ponds shortly before and during catch arrival.

Hoki arriving at 12 - 15°C is quickly cooled to 0°C. Because of the excellent preservation effect of the slurry, the vessels are able to process product up to 18 hours old from the receiving ponds into “A-Grade” skin-off fillet, and the yield rate from the filleting machines also increases due to the firmer product being put through them. Another benefit is that the texture and colour of the fillets is much more consistent and closely resembles that of freshly caught product. During some stages of the hoki season the fish is only caught during the day, so the ability to catch larger bags at the end of the day and process the fish throughout the night without loss of quality has also proven in-

For fishing vessels delivering fresh fish in bins or boxes, low ice concentration slurry ice systems are not an ideal option. When icing the fish bins or boxes, the thinner slurry could easily run off through the drain holes, while a significant part of the system’s refrigeration capacity is consumed to produce the large volumes of cooling water, rather than ice crystals. To address the problem, Sunwell developed a system capable of producing ice slurries in varying ice consistencies for use in fish receiving ponds and fish storage bins. Since 2001, this type of the system has been adopted onboard many fishing vessels, including Pesca Chile S.A.’s fishing fleet.

Onboard Pesca Chile’s wetfish trawlers and longliners, the temperature of fish when it arrives in the receiving ponds can be as high as 15 °C. A slurry with a lower ice fraction of 15 to 20% is pumped and sprayed into the receiving ponds to immediately reduce the temperature of the large quantities of fish. The fish is kept there until it can be sorted by size and boxed. A thicker slurry with an ice fraction of 40 to 50% is pumped directly into the boxes leaving the fish firmly packed and cradled in ice crystals. The boxes are kept in a fish hold for the duration of the fishing trip. Mr. Paulino Martino, Head of the Technical Department, says: “We are pleased with the benefits of the slurry ice and the way the quality of our product has improved by using it” www.eurofishmagazine.com

pro ce ssing

One of the Sunwell’s recent developments is the introduction of the world’s first onboard low salinity system for Hokubu Makiami Gyogyo Inc. of Japan in 2006. The equipment was installed aboard its 300GT purse seiner “Hokusho Maru” which fishes tuna or skipjack from April to October, and mackerel and sardine from November to February. The system has 20 mt daily ice capacity and includes a compact, patented separator/dispenser tank which separates saltwater from the slurry. The ability to adjust the ice concentration by up to 60%, and the salt content in the range of 2 to 3%, ensures maximum preservation without damage to or excessive salt uptake by the fish.

According to the company’s division manager, Mr. Sakurai, “the fish caught can be quickly chilled onboard preserving the the product’s freshness more effectively than crushed ice. In addition, it does not hurt the surface of the fish – and it saves labour” Continuous innovation is the key to Sunwell’s success in the industry. Two of its latest installations onboard the paired trawlers “Heykur” and “Falkur” delivered to Faroe Seafood in early 2008 include a computer-based automatic monitoring and diagnostic package. A sophisticated touch panel allows operators to monitor and record the operating parameters, while office personnel can track the system’s operations online, and even change the system settings.

For more information please contact: Dr. Ming-Jian Wang Technical Sales Manager Sunwell Technologies Inc. 180 Caster Avenue Woodbridge, Ontario Canada L4L 5Y7 Tel: +1 905 8560400 Fax: +1 905 8561935 www.eurofishmagazine.com

Jens Möller Products produces vegetable alternative to fish roe

Caviar imitation from seaweed

Jens Møller from Denmark holds a patent for the production of caviar imitation from seaweed. His company of the same name is based in Lemvig and can produce about six tonnes of the product per day. It is traded internationally mainly under the brand name Cavi-Art.

T

he idea of processing the raw material seaweed to caviar imitation came to Jens Møller several years ago as a result of an experiment that had actually gone wrong but which surprisingly offered new possibilities. After several further experiments the Danish biologist had developed a processing technique and founded a company which today sells a good two million euros worth of vegetable caviar per year. The range currently comprises red, black and yellow seaweed caviar, plus the flavours Wasabi, Chilli, Balsamico and Ginger. The company emphasizes that the products do not contain any azo colorants and are only treated with natural colours. The product’s price is well below that of lumpfish roe.

According to the producer, kitchen chefs particularly like using Cavi-Art for decorating meals because it does not discolour other foods. The product can be used in hot and cold dishes and has a fresh flavour and crisp consistency. Even after the jar has been opened Cavi-Art will last a long time, like pickled gherkins, for example. Because vegetable caviar is free from cholesterol it was awarded the Prix d’Elite for health and nutrition at the Brussels fair and also won a second price for originality. The raw materials are readily available and only a few

per cent of the renewable seaweed is harvested per year. It is taken from the sea off the coasts of France and Scotland.

The caviar imitation is offered in jars and plastic tubs weighing 100 or 500 g and in 3, 5 and 10 kg buckets and barrels with 116 kg.

The main buyers for the bulk units are currently Spain and Sweden where the product is repacked in

smaller units. In the meantime the vegetable caviar is not only traded on the European market but also overseas. In recent years Argentina and Brazil, South Africa and Australia joined the list of buyers.

In Germany, Gottfried Friedrichs has Cavi-Art on their product list, and the discounter Netto offers it under the name “Nordsee Kaviar Ersatz” (North Sea Caviar Imitation). nik

According to the producer, kitchen chefs like using Cavi-Art to decorate their dishes because it doesn’t discolour other foods. The product can be used in hot or cold meals.

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Heiko Lenk employs about 20 people in Asia and Europe who together took care of about 8,500 tonnes of products in 2008.

uct they want and can define the product specifications. It is then our job to organise everything from sourcing to delivery because we are on site and are knowledgeable about the companies and their possibilities”, says Lenk to describe his company’s service spectrum.

Buying service in Asia

ISO certification for Lenk Frozen Foods in Thailand

Prefried products to spark new trend

Asia is one of the most important regions for buying and processing fish and seafood.

Heiko Lenk recognized this fact early on and set up his own service company in Thailand to offer support during procurement of seafood. His company now holds ISO 9001:2008 certification and has started producing convenience products for the European market.

H

eiko Lenk roams between different worlds.

For more than 250 days a year he is ‘en route’ – travelling back and forth between Europe

and Asia to bring shrimp from Thailand or pangasius from Vietnam to the European market.

As a rule he does not import the fish and seafood for his own ac-

count but acts as a problem solver who has knowledge of the culture and market structure in both Asia and in Europe. “The customers who turn to us know which prod-

“We develop private labels for the food service segment, cash & carry markets, grocery and industry sectors, and support all our customers’ activities on site”, says Lenk, going into more detail.

His company has its own teams in Vietnam, China, India, Bangladesh and Thailand for selecting raw materials and factories, monitoring product processing and packaging, and carrying out all inspections and controls that are necessary up to shipment. Each team is headed by food technologist. “We give our customers the certainty that the products will meet their expectations”, ensures Lenk. It is the customers who act as importers, and Lenk Fro-

Lenk Seafood Company Fact File Lenk Seafood Service GmbH Rathausstr. 10 22941 Bargteheide Tel.: +49 (0)4532-28 80 80 Fax: +49 (0)4532 28 80 810 E-mail to German office: mailG@ sea-scout.net E-mail to Thai office: mailTH@ sea-scout.net www.sea-scout.net

The headquarters of Lenk Frozen Foods is in Bangkok.

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Owner / Manager: Heiko Lenk

Chief Executive: Alf-Olai Ingebrigtsen Business: - Service and support for seafood procurement in Asia - European trading platform for Asian partner companies Customers: Importers, caterers, grocery, industry Product volume in 2008: 8,500 tonnes Founded: 2003 No. employees: 20

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All the recipes are adapted to European taste. The product line comprises both finger food and fillet products for the grocery and catering sectors – all products are suited to preparation in convection ovens, conventional ovens, deep-fryers or the frying pan. From left to right: Barramundi Fillet “a la Meuniere“, Gourmet Pangasius “Knusperli“, Gourmet Pangasius “Crispy Crumb“.

zen Food charges a service fee based on the extent of the work involved.

The headquarters of Lenk Frozen Foods are in Bangkok, not far from Samutsakhon, the biggest auction market for shrimp in Thailand. Thailand constitutes the base and the starting point for the company’s activities in Asia. Lenk operates internationally and has customers on a contract basis in numerous EU states. Half of total sales are made in Germany, half abroad. Lenk’s customers come from the sectors import, grocery and industry. A good six years ago Lenk took the plunge and moved with his family to Thailand. Today he employs about 20 people in Asia and Europe who together took care of about 8,500 tonnes of products last year.

First Thai company to gain ISO 9001:2008 certification In order to optimise this product flow with its continuous cycle of product ideas and development, buying, customised processing, dispatch, customs clearance and distribution the company made considerable investments in internal work processes over the past years. The company headquarters in Thailand and the offices in Germany, India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam all work www.eurofishmagazine.com

with a uniform SAP software to harmonise and document communication and order processing. Heiko Lenk is particularly

proud of the company’s recently acquired ISO certificate (in the latest version) as proof of his defined, organised work processes.

Start-up of own production In addition to customised problem solutions Lenk Seafood has now begun developing and producing its own range of prefried fish products, e.g. in beer batter, crispy crumbs or pan-fried with lemon and herbs (“à la meunière”). All the recipes have been adapted to European taste and are produced in co-operation with a BRC-certified production plant in Vietnam. The product line comprises both finger food and fillet products for the grocery and catering sectors – all products are suited for preparation in convection ovens, conventional ovens, deep-fryers or the frying pan.

“We are not trying to compete with exactly calibrated portion products that are cut from blocks but want to concentrate on natural fillets from farmed fishes such as pangasius or barramundi”, emphasizes Heiko Lenk to clarify the company’s direction. The current line is to be extended quickly, for example by the addition of Pangasius Lemon Sticks with a weight of 15 grams. “The grocery sector is constantly looking for new products and we are sure that we will be able to set new market trends with our prefried line” – Lenk is confident and has a number of innovations and new products in the pipeline for the next two years. nik

Heiko Lenk is particularly proud of the company’s ISO certificate that was awarded in March 2009. He claims Lenk Frozen Foods is the first trading company in Thailand to receive this certificate.

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

55

Best Harvest provides services for food industry

Co-packer with six packaging lines plus trouble shooting Packaging, labelling and trouble shooting are services that co-packer Best Harvest offers to the food industry and trade. The company’s six lines can pack fish fingers just as easily as fillets in PE pillow bags or cartons (top or end load) and vacuum processed in PE-vacum packs and PP-trays. Best Harvest also develops special machines for solving individual problems.

J

ürg Knoll, the manager of Fish & More from Friedrichshafen, wants to establish ‘Followfish’ as a consistently sustainable brand in the frozen foods segment. But it is not clear how many of these innovative organic and MSC products he will be able to sell in the launch phase. To get around this problem the trading company decides to do without its own packaging line at first and in-

56 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

Best Harvest Company Fact File Best Harvest GmbH Cuxhavener Straße 36 21762 Otterndorf Tel.: +49 (0)47 51 / 9 16 - 200 Fax: +49 (0)47 51 / 9 16 - 205 E-mail: bestharvest@gooss.de www.best-harvest.de Business: Service company for the food industry

Owner: Erwin Gooss Tiefkühlhäuser GmbH & Co. KG and Partners Managing Directors: Axel Stahlbuck, Axel Dinter Services: Packaging, bundling, labelling, coding Customers: Food industry, trade Founded: 1994 Certificates: IFS 5, Bio BCS, MSC Chain of Custody

The trading company Fish & More from Friedrichshafen in the south of Germany does without its own packaging line and makes use of the new line for top-load cartons at Best Harvest.

stead make use of Best Harvest’s new line for top load cartons.

“This requirements situation is characteristic of one of our customer groups”, says Best Harvest Manager Axel Dinter: “The client has an idea but not yet the large quantities to support investment in their own packaging line. And apart from that, during the start-up phase they often have enough to do with the product itself, the brand, and its positioning in the market.”

And that is where the co-packer from Otterndorf in the north of Germany (ten kilometres east of Cuxhaven) can help. Best Harvest is a subsidiary of coldstore and logistics specialist Erwin Gooss and offers far-reaching solutions in the packaging, labelling, coding and frozen storage segments. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Food technology competence The Best Harvest logo points to the origins of the service provider: pitting cherries. Cherries have been destoned using machines of the Swiss producer Ferrum since 1994.

However, this technique is no longer exact enough for the demands of some customers today who want a reliably low stone tolerance. Axel Dinter is thus currently co-operating with Ecoma Maschinenbau, Bremen to develop a new technology for the pitting process. Two prototypes with capacities of 200 kg/h and 1,000 kg/h are meanwhile being tested by Best Harvest who will later work with these machines.

How do the machines work? Every individual cherry is scanned and measured as it enters the machine. This guarantees that only acceptable fruits will be pitted.

The pitting process itself is monitored. Before and after the pitting process undesired fruits can be singled out and ejected. The aim is a 100% inline control (i.e. within the production line) that is also documented. The resulting record is the basis for outgoing product

for a major customer, until the customer built up his own packaging line.

Carton lines: Top-loading and End-loading

Co-packing is a partnership in which the customer specifies the standards.

Axel Dinter, Managing Director Best Harvest: “Ideally we become a department of our client’s business.”

control and incoming product control at the customer’s which it can even replace. The technological competence that Best Harvest documents with this example from fruit processing is the same as that which Axel Dinter applies to packing fish products.

Fish fingers in bags Best Harvest packaged fish fingers for two years as contractor

The fish finger packaging line supplies accurate documentation of one of Best Harvest’s strategies.

“A big order guarantees a certain basic capacity so that we can then dare to invest in the machine which can be used for other jobs later on”, explains Dinter. Alongside fish finger packaging and a line for bagged products the Ottendorf company recently installed two packaging machines which can pack fish products both in top-load and end-load processes. Whilst the Followfish products mentioned earlier are packed into the cartons from above (top-load), filling gable-top cartons that are filled from the side constitutes a special challenge because the gable has to be erected. Normal block shaped cartons can also be used on this line. The carton packaging lines rely almost fully on German technology.

The class of smoking and cooking.

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A class of its own.

Fish fingers in bags for the English market – This is an example of the discontinuous jobs that big producers give to Best Harvest so that their own lines can concentrate on producing volume. www.eurofishmagazine.com

NESS & Co. GmbH Maschinen- & Anlagenbau Remsstraße 24 D-73630 Remshalden / Germany Tel.: +49-71 81-96 75-0 Fax: +49-71 81-4 39 35 E-Mail: nessco@ness.de Internet: http://www.ness.de

proc essing

overalls are of different colours, and workers are not allowed to move from one department to another until they have changed their clothes.

Trouble shooting: Best Harvest a versatile problem solver A further service provided by Best Harvest is trouble shooting, for example in the case of problems on which the client cannot spend time for reasons of work efficiency. The possible job spectrum here is wide and it can only be enlarged upon by naming examples.

Alex Dinter: “For instance, bags have to be filled with 50 grams more and subsequently no longer fit in the packaging. Or cartons that have spent a night in the coldstore are open the next day because the carton, the adhesive and the cold don’t go together.”

The areas labelling and traceability alone conceal a large number of technical challenges today: Do I need a special printing head for an absorbent surface or can I print with a fast drying ink?

Fish & More has its new range ‘Followfish’ packed on the new Best Harvest line for top-load cartons. In the start-up phase it is often not worth a firm’s investing in its own packaging technology.

Grouping products is also asked for as an individual task. The reason for this is that a lot of producers produce only one sort of product, whereas retailers are increasingly demanding mixed cartons. Product grouping is also conceivable in the context of special retail actions.

Best Harvest is again a suitable partner here for sorting items into cartons in the required combination or bundling them. One customer from Denmark, for example, arranged for a stop in Otterndorf on the way to the central grocery storage depot so as to have their products bundled there. Careful labelling is necessary for this process: the barcodes on the cartons have to be covered with exactly positioned mesh film so that the three-pack is not scanned as an individual pack at the check-out.

Separation in allergen and non allergen work areas The fish area at Best Harvest is strictly separate from the second

“A department of our client’s business”

operational division, i.e. the fruit and vegetables department. This is because while produce from the land or from trees is considered “non-allergenic”, fish products contain several allergenic substances: for one thing seafood

58 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

in itself has a higher allergenic potential, and for another the flour contained in any crumb coatings contains gluten. The processing halls thus have separate entrances with separate hygiene facilities, cleaning equipment and staff

“Before we can make a customer a comprehensive offer we have to ask them a lot of questions. Due to our experience we can clarify a lot of issues beforehand enabling us to avoid unpleasant surprises”, is the reason Dinter gives for a procedure that may seem superfluous to some clients. Best Harvest has established itself at a service level which is more demanding than pure picking and packing.

Co-packing is a partnership in which the customer specifies the standards. Particularly with the regular customers in mind Axel Dinter sums up: “Ideally we become a department of our client’s business.” bm www.eurofishmagazine.com

Every slice,

every portion,

One of the services offered by Best Harvest is customized repackaging for different markets while maintaining product quality.

weigh the same.

Erwin Gooss, the parent company of Best Harvest

Frozen logistics specialist for Western and Eastern Europe The services that Best Harvest offers are closely connected to the potential of the parent company, the frozen logistics specialist Erwin Gooss. Gooss operates three coldstores at the mouth of the River Elbe: one at the headquarters in Otterndorf and two in Cuxhaven – one in “Amerikahafen” and the other in the fishing port. Altogether there are 155,000 cubic metres of frozen storage space available, including 7,600 pallet spaces in a movable racking system, plus 600 cubic metres shock frosting space. At the 600 metre long quayside in Cuxhaven numerous ships with frozen fish, particularly sea frozen Alaska pollack from North America, are cleared.

About 150,000 tonnes of frozen products are turned over every year, three quarters of them fish products. The company portfolio includes stevedoring and cargo control, import and export clearance, including customs and veterinary clearance. Gooss Manager Axel Stahlbuck emphasizes that Gooss works not only for the Bremerhaven and Lower Saxony fish industry but also functions as a hub for Western and Eastern Europe.

Take a look at our remarkable, new and unique GEBA salmon slicer SC 125 V at marel.com/fixedweightslicer and be amazed by its speed, precision and handling.

It cuts whole fillets of salmon into fixed weight slices or portions, providing extremely efficient production of retail packs or pre-cut fillets for catering. The benefits are many: less labour, higher quality slices or portions, higher yields and less giveaway. Go on, take a look. Better still, see it in action on Stand 6227, Hall 4 at SPE, Brussels.

You’ll soon see why you want one.

marel.com/fixedweightslicer salmondivision@marel.com

www.eurofishmagazine.com Marel_SalmonSlicer_Advert.indd 1

16/3/10 14:13:48

[ research ] Reusing cleaned wastewater

Reducing the environmental impact of the fish processing industry

T

he Basque Country area together with Galicia in the north of Spain is home to a significant fish processing industry with tuna canning an important subsector that approximately employs 15,000 people in Spain.

In the Basque Country there are 23 tuna and anchovy processing industries, which annually process about 28,000 tonnes. This production results in 9,800 tonnes of solid waste and 250,000 cubic meters of wastewater, the management of which involves ever higher costs and thereby, a loss in competitiveness. The industry is also increasingly coming under pressure from cheaper producers of canned tuna in Asia and Latin America and is therefore making serious efforts to increase its competitiveness. One of the ways to improve efficiency is by the optimisation of production processes.

In a project run by the Food Research Division of the AZTI-Tecnalia, a research institute, scientists with the participation of five companies launched a project to optimise production processes and to minimise wastewater using clean technologies.

Fish waste (pieces of fish, blood, fats, etc.) generated at the different stages of the production line are usually rinsed away with water. This water together with the impurities from the production is what constitutes the final wastewater of a fish processing

charges not only for the used water but also the wastewater.

A filter mesh is an effective way to retain solid waste.

company. Production process optimisation seeks to use water and the raw materials more efficiently as well as to prevent or at least reduce the pollution at source. The technologies that minimise the consumption of resources (water, energy, raw materials, etc.), reduce product and by-product losses, as well as wastewater and emissions, are termed clean technologies, and are used to bring about the production process optimisation. The project was carried out in processing companies whose main activity was the production of canned tuna.

High volumes of water needed for processing operations Fish processors need large volumes of water during the processing operations. The researchers estimated that an average of 10 cubic meters were needed per

60 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

tonne of raw material. The use of this water implies a discharge of wastewaters containing high concentrations of pollutants that give rise to several problems which can be grouped into environmental, economic and regulatory issues. Environmental problems resulting from the discharge of wastewaters include a sharp decrease of the water quality, a reduction in flora and fauna biodiversity, the degradation of rivers and coasts, the decrease in leisure areas, and a fall in the availability of high quality water.

The economic issues include the collapse of wastewater treatment facilities, and that the water treatment effort is between 10 and 20 times higher than the price of the water to be consumed.

Among the regulatory problems is that it is difficult to fulfil the requirements despite treating the water and this implies water

The volumes of water used at different stages of the processing operations produces wastewater with specific characteristics such as salinity, fats and oils, organic matter and ph. To solve this complex problem efficiently, the researchers decided that cleaner production plans should be the main environmental strategy to prevent pollution and to minimise at source the volume and pollutants in the wastewater. After studying in detail the flow chart of a standard canned tuna manufacturing process, and applying an environmental analysis, the researchers concluded that the most water was used in the ‘fresh handling area,’ which involved fish reception, thawing, heading and gutting, and slice washing.

Furthermore, they proved that the main sources of pollution in the wastewater came from two production steps: from the cleaning that takes place in the ‘fresh handling area’ and from the cooking in brine. The higher percentage of suspended solids mainly came from the rinsing with water during the thawing, head cutting, gutting and slice cutting stages.

At the same time, a high concentration of oils was detected in the cooking in brine step, originating during the tuna fish cooking. In order to fulfil the objective, the rewww.eurofishmagazine.com

[ research ] searchers took specific measures aimed at saving water, and reducing water pollution.

The effectiveness of implementing these simple and low cost measures was measured, and showed very satisfying results.

The factories involved in the project, achieved a 50% water saving in volume. Regarding wastewater pollution, suspended solids decreased by 40% and fats by 90%.

The solids and fats recovered from the wastewater were reused achieving an increase of 15% in the fish by-products valorisation for animal feed production, and 80% of the fats were valorised for fish oil production after separation and filtration.

In addition, the researchers looked at the possibility to reuse the cleaned wastewater within the factories. Due to the addition of wastewater from very different processes the final effluent comprises a mix of wastewaters with quite different qualities. At the same time all water uses do not need the same quality. A comparative study between the quality and quantity of the wastewater versus the quality and quantity needed for the different internal uses, helped the researchers identify possibilities for internal reutilization. For example, cooling water from the sterilization process was reused for the cleaning of production facilities and condensed water coming from the sterilization and cooking processes was also recovered.

To sum up, the final proposal to minimise the quality and quantity of effluents in a fish processing factory is based on four measures.

Water saving: measures aimed at wastewater minimization (volume) - First filter: To establish best practices and cleaner producwww.eurofishmagazine.com

tion measures in specific production steps that make better use of the raw material in order to reduce the rinsing out of fish and fish waste.

- Second filter: Solid and fat retention by means of adequate technologies deployed in specific production areas.

- Third filter: Solid and fats retention at the end pipe, by optimizing and adjusting existing water treatment facilities.

Awareness among employees imperative to improve results Inexpensive and simple minimization techniques applied to the

fish processing industry are effective and efficient. Significant water and costs savings were achieved demonstrating once more that the best strategy to protect water resources and save water is prevention.

Innovative water minimization and reutilization technologies will make the fish processing industry less dependent on water availability. In the near future, the key to fish processing industry competitiveness will be the management of water used within the plant. How water is used inside a processing plant and the characteristics and quality of the wastewater emerging

from different processing operations need to be studied carefully in order to find the most efficient way of reusing the wastewater. Furthermore, to obtain the best results a greater awareness among the employees involved in the production processes is needed.

For more information please contact: S. Etxebarria, J. Zufía Food Research Division AZTI-Tecnalia Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia, Astondo Bidea –Building 609.

48160 Derio (Bizkaia), Spain (setxebarria@azti.es)

Reducing Water Pollution Measures Fresh Handling Area Reception, Thawing, Cutting, Fish washing

- Establish a standard water-free procedure to pick up the fish waste - Fish slice washing machine: 1. Adjust an appropriate filter mesh when emptying in order to keep the solid waste. 2. Reduce the diameter of the emptying hose

Cooking Area

- Get rid of the oil in the surface of the cooking waters by means of a pump - Think about the possibility of using a rotary sieve to minimise solids

Fish Manual Cleaning

- Avoid using trays with holes on the bottom, only on the sides - Make personnel aware of the importance of making use of every single piece of the fish - Optimization of the conveyor belts

Liquid Dosage

- Adapt the suitable size of the can to the dosage head - Avoid any kind of vibration or overflowing - Try to collect any liquid leak properly

Water Supply Network

- Distribute small baskets to collect the solid waste in all the drainage system of the plant - Design of more suitable baskets (hole size, and shape) - Pump the final wastewater to a rotary sieve

Water Saving Measures Fresh Handling Area Reception, Thawing, Cutting, Fish washing

- Install hoses with volume adjustment (water guns, stopcocks) - Reduce the section or diameter of the cleaning hose - Install a sensor that stops water flowing if there is no fish running on the belt - Reduce the water volume in the fish washing showers - Optimise production planning in order to adjust the thawing times

Cleaning

- Pick up the driest solid waste before washing - Define a standard cleaning procedure - Use adequate cleaning tools

Sterilization

- Reuse the cooling water of sterilization process

Others

- Personnel awareness in water saving - Careful check of leaks in the plant - Control water devices in toilets

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

61

Norway Aker Seafoods in Stamsund offers ‘super chilled’ cod

Fresh fillets keep for up to two days longer

With over 1,000 employees Aker Seafoods is one of the biggest industrial organisations in Norway and the biggest private employer in the north of the country. The company has nine processing plants between Båtsfjord and the Lofoten. The plant in Stamsund was equipped with a super chill processing line. Super chilled fillets keep for two days longer than traditionally ice cooled fresh fillets.

A

ker Seafoods is probably not only the biggest fisheries organisation for white fish in Norway but in the whole of Europe, too. The company’s 14 trawlers which mainly fish to the north of the Arctic Circle together have a total fishing quota of 52,000 t. A further 18,000 t that are purchased from other vessels have to be added to this. Aker holds 11% of the national fishing quota for cod alone, which is the Norwegian fishery’s most important fish species. The company thus has access to large quantities of raw materials and can supply fresh white fish fillets and other fish products to its customers in Norway, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, France and Germany all the year round via a Europe-wide sales

network. Cod is the most important fish species in the Aker portfolio. Thanks to the very good situation of the Arctic stock the

Aker fleet’s fishing quota could be increased by 16% to 18,513 t for 2010 (weight refers to headed and gutted fish). The quota for had-

Aker Seafoods’ processing plant in Stamsund on the Lofoten is in a strategically favourable position in a very abundant fishing region.

dock, whose stock numbers have reached an all-time high was even increased by a quarter to 11,851 t.

“Cod fishing has top priority for us”, says Morten Hyldborg Jensen, the Sales and Marketing Director at Aker. “Demand for this fish is particularly high. It can be processed in a variety of ways, it sells well and it generates good profits.”

Where saithe is concerned, however, the company will probably again fail to catch all its quota of 19,565 t in 2010. “Saithe is more difficult to catch than cod. You need powerful, fast fishing vessels. And it doesn’t get such good prices either, so the fishermen concentrate on the considerably more lucrative cod first.” At the end of the year it’s often no longer possible to fish for saithe because cod – whose quota is by then already fully used up – forms part of the bycatch.

Fresh fillets ‘just in time’ for Europe Sales and Marketing Director Morten Hyldborg Jensen.

The cod fishery outside the 12 mile zone is expected to receive MSC certification in April.

62 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

One of Aker Seafoods’ strengths is the regular delivery of white fish to supermarket chains. Norway’s www.eurofishmagazine.com

sustainable fisheries

commitment to sustainable fishing practices is paying off for the fishing industry because a lot of the basic fish stocks are in a very good condition. “Because we fish on a solid basis and can divide the fishing quotas that are allotted to us strategically over the whole year we manage to avoid large fluctuations in landings”, explains Jensen. “New catches arrive at the filleting plants almost every day and this enables rapid processing, good usage of capacity in the plants and ultimately ‘just in time’ deliveries to our customers.” The

step of Europe’s key markets the distances from Aker’s processing plants in the far north to destinations in France, Spain or Germany are long. Fresh fillets spoil fast and every hour that is taken up with processing and transporting the fish shortens the shelf-life of the product after its arrival on the store shelves and counters. This demanding business is only profitable because at Aker Seafoods fish landings and processing are so perfectly co-ordinated and logistics and transport present no problems. But really there is no

Stamsund plant on the Lofoten.

Over four million euros were invested in the complete processing line which has a daily capacity of 20,000 kg product weight. ‘Super chilling’ means that the fillets are cooled to a temperature of minus 1 to minus 2°C, depending on the fish species, fat content and salt concentration in the tissue fluid.

During cooling the temperature is lowered to as close as possible to freezing point without, however, allowing ice crystals to develop in the fillet or the fish to freeze. This extreme cooling process gives the

“Day-fresh catches are best for super chilling”, emphasizes the marketing director. “As soon as the raw materials are older than four to five days they can no longer be considered for this product.” The fresher a fish is at the time of landing the more super chilling will be able to lengthen the shelf-life of the fillet.

“On average the shelf-life of super chilled fillets is two days longer.”

Because the Aker plant in Stamsund on the Lofoten is very close to the abundant fishing grounds for cod and other white fish spe-

In the cooling tunnel the freshly cut fillets are cooled to a core temperature of minus 1 to 2°C before skinning. Super chilling makes the fillet firmer.

If transported and stored at the correct temperature super chilled products do not really need to be packed with ice. A lot of customers insist on this, however, to be on the safe side.

company’s marketing concept is based on maximum processing of the fish and maximum freshness of the products. Put plainly that means the processing plants primarily produce fillets, loins and portions which are mainly marketed fresh. Already now over half of all the fresh cod products that Norway exports come from Aker Seafoods and this share is to increase further in the future.

product an additional ‘cold reserve’ which lengthens its shelflife. By combining super chilling with protective atmosphere packaging (MAP) the durability of fresh salmon, for example, can be lengthened to as long as three weeks. This is, however, only possible because the salmon comes from aquaculture and is super chilled and MAP packed immediately after it is removed from the water. The shelf-life of species that come from wild fisheries, such as cod, cannot be increased so drastically because the fish is already slightly older when it is landed since it has to cover the journey to the fishing port after it is caught.

Aker Seafoods’ focus on fresh fish enables them to make higher profits but also places high requirements on the company and entails some risks. Although Norway is situated on the doorwww.eurofishmagazine.com

alternative to the freshness concept, anyway, because it’s almost impossible to earn anything with frozen products today. Since China’s filleting factories increased the pressure with twice frozen fillets and thereby conquered increasingly large market shares profit margins in the frozen sector have diminished.

Only absolutely fresh fish is suitable for super chilling Aker was able to advance further in the fresh fish segment with the installation of super chill technology for the processing line at the

cies two thirds of the landings can be processed to super chilled fillets and portions. Only in autumn and winter is the landed cod sometimes no longer fresh enough for super chilled products because at that time of the year the shoals of fish move northwards and so the trawlers have to cover longer distances to the fishing grounds.

Super chilled in less than 10 minutes All the technical processes at the Stamsund plant are geared to maximum speed during processing of the fish. The pier at which the trawlers make fast is directly in front of

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

63

norway

the plant and it is only a few metres to the filleting machines. After cutting, the fillets are quickly washed and then immediately cooled to a temperature of -1 to -1.5°C. Super chilling also has benefits for the subsequent processes, explains plant manager Claus Schive: “The strong cooling process gives the fillet a firmer structure which makes it easier to skin. Apart from that it also prevents gaping of the flesh.

After skinning, an intelligent portion cutter first cuts the tails from the fillets to a defined size. “The tails are a very good and a very popular product, especially in the catering segment: pure fillet flesh, absolutely boneless, pre-calibrated portions and, on top of that, for a lower price than loins… so exactly what caterers and restaurant chefs are looking for.” On average, the weight of the tail portions is about 100 grams, but alternative sizes are possible, too, depending on the size of the fillets. The most important product in the super chilled line, however, is loins. These are carefully cut and trimmed by hand to ensure maximum yield. Afterwards the super chilled fresh loins and fillets are packed in insulated cool boxes for transport. “If the refrigeration in the trucks is set correctly, super chilled fish products can be delivered without ice, and some types of ice are even disadvantageous to the fish because they are slightly warmer than the very cold fish.”

From the arrival of the fish in the factory to the super chilled fillet doesn’t even take ten minutes, says Schrive: “Usually the fish is already cooled to the desired temperature after five minutes.”

Nearly half of production from the Stamsund Aker plant is exported to France; the other half is divided up between Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Benelux states and Germany. Cod accounts for about 55% of super chilled production

The finished super chilled fillets are immediately packed into insulated cool boxes.

One third of the fillets whose freshness does not come up to that necessary for super chilling is frozen to convenience products.

volume, haddock for a quarter, and the remaining 20% is saithe.

MSC seal for Arctic cod and haddock In order to meet the constantly

64 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

increasing demand for highquality fresh seafood products Aker Seafoods has additionally developed a range of products called “Arctic Supreme”. These products address premium customers in the retail and whole-

sale sectors, as well as in catering, hotels and restaurants. The quality requirements of the products in this range, which includes 500 t of king crab products per year, for example, are particularly high. In the fish sector only line fished raw materials are permitted and they have to arrive at the factory at the latest ten hours after the catch. Here, too, it pays off that the company has constant direct access to fresh raw materials and to healthy stocks that are fished sustainably. Norway is known to be one of the best fishing nations in the world in which the UN guidelines for responsible fisheries management are fully implemented. And this firm stance in fisheries policy has been successful. For 2010 the total fishing quota for Arctic cod in the Barents Sea could be increased by 16% to 607,000 t, 271,045 t of which is for Norway. The TAC for haddock was increased by 25% to 243,000 t, of which Norway can fish 116,400 t.

Sales and Marketing Director Morten Hyldborg Jensen thus has every reason to look to the future with optimism: “We are expecting our cod fishery outside of the 12 mile zone to be awarded MSC certification in April this year. We already have frozen blocks from this fishery in storage because after successful completion of the certification process we can trade products that were not older than 6 months at the time of certification under the MSC label.”

His pleasure is understandable because, together with other seafood processors, Aker Seafoods has been involved in the certification process since 2005. The Norwegian saithe fishery has already been allowed to carry the MSC label since June 2008 and with Arctic cod and haddock two other commercially important species will now be added. mk www.eurofishmagazine.com

Diary Dates

April

June

8-10 April, 2010 Seoul Seafood Show 2010 Seoul, Korea Tel.: +82 2 6000 2800 Fax: +82 2 6000 2805 dhshin@b2expo.org www.seoulseafood.com

7-9 June, 2010 AquaVision 2010 Stavanger, Norway Tel.: +47 51 59 81 00 Fax: +47 51 55 10 15 post@blueplanet.no www.blueplanet.no

27-29 April, 2010 European Seafood Exposition 2010 Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +1 207 842 55 00 Fax: +1 207 842 55 00 www.euroseafood.com

9-12 June 2010 FAO Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 Bangkok, Thailand Tel.: +39 06 57052428 Fax: +39 06 57053020 Aqua-Conference2010@fao.org www.aqua-conference2010.org

May 19-20 May, 2010 Aquaculture UK 2010 Aviemore, Scotland, UK Tel.: +44 1862 892188 info@aquacultureuk.com www. aquacultureuk.com

20-22 May, 2010 Fishing 2010 Glasgow, UK Tel.: +44 141 248 3000 info@qdevents.co.uk www.fishingexpo.co.uk

20-22 May, 2010 Tuna 2010 Bangkok Bangkok, Thailand Tel.: +61 3 9645 0411 Fax: +61 3 9645 0475 marinfo@baird.com.au www.infofish.org

21-23 May, 2010 70th International Fishing Fair Ancona, Italy Tel.: +39 071 58971 Fax: +39 071 5897213 info@erf.it www.fieradellapesca.it

15-17 June, 2010 World Ocean Council Sustainable Ocean Summit 2010 Belfast, UK Tel.: +1 808 277 9008 info@worldoceancouncil.org www.worldoceancouncil.org 16-18 June, 2010 Offshore Mariculture 2010 Dubrovnik, Croatia Tel.: +44 1622 820622 Fax: +44 1329 825330 iroberts@mercatormedia.com

August 17-20 August, 2010 Nor-Fishing 2010 Trondheim, Norway Tel.: +47 73 56 86 40 Fax: +47 73 56 86 41 mailbox@nor-fishing.no www.nor-fishing.no

16-18 September 2010 Future Fish Eurasia Izmir, Turkey Tal.: +90 212 347 10 54 Fax: +90 212 347 10 53 info@eurasiafairs.com www.eurasiafairs.com

October 4-7 October, 2010 Annual Meeting of WEFTA Izmir, Turkey Tel.:+902323434000 (Ext:5229) ufuk.celik@ege.edu.tr www.wefta2010.org 5-7 October 2010 Conxemar Vigo, Spain Tel.:+ 34 986 433 351 Fax:+ 34 986 221 174 conxemar@conxemar.com www.conxemar.com 5-8 October, 2010 Aquaculture Europe Porto, Portugal Tel.: +32 9 2334912 Fax: +32 9 2334912 mario.stael@scarlet.be www.easonline.org

September

7-9 October, 2010 Polar Fish 2010 Sisimiut, Greenland Tel.: +45 99 35 55 55 Fax: +45 99 35 55 33 ehe@akkc.dk www.polar-fish.net

14-17 September, 2010 World Food Moscow 2010 Moscow, Russia Tel.: +44 207 596 5086 Fax: +44 207 596 5113 tony.higginson@ite-exhibitions.com www.world-food.ru

26-29 October, 2010 Interfish 2010 Moscow, Russia Tel.: +7 495 228 70 74 Fax: +7 495 228 70 72 interfish-expo@yandex.ru www.interfish-expo.ru

A d d y o u r e v e n t t o w w w. e u r o f i s h . d k

List of A dvertise rs

EUROFISH

MAGAZINE

Name of Company Imprint Publishing House

Joint publishers & managing editors Editorial office Copenhagen

Editorial office Hamburg

Alaska Seafood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back cover

Fachpresse Verlag Michael Steinert An der Alster 21 D-20099 Hamburg Germany Phone +49 (0) 40 / 24 84 54-0 Fax +49 (0) 40 / 280 37 88

Baader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Biro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Michael Steinert, Aina Afanasjeva

Boulogne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Behnan Thomas (bt) H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark Phone +45 333 777 55 behnan.thomas@eurofish.dk

Carnitech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Cuxhavener Kühlhäuser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

André Nikolaus (nik) Phone +49 (0) 40 / 24 84 54-17 andre.nikolaus@snfachpresse.de

Depron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Björn Marnau (bm) Phone +49 (0) 40 / 24 84 54-15 bjoern.marnau@snfachpresse.de Editorial office Delbrück

Editorial board Layout

Emperor Aquatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Dr. Manfred Klinkhardt (mk) Redaktionsbüro Delbrück Franz-Stock-Straße 23 D-33129 Delbrück Germany Phone +49 (0) 52 50 / 93 34 16 manfred.klinkhardt@web.de

Future Fish Eurasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inner front cover Geo Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Lahsen Ababouch, Martin Gill, Helga Josupeit, Michael New Sven Mohr-Eggert (responsible), Lukas Tarapata Matthias Hellmuth, Norbert Lützow, Sebastian Krebs E-Mail: sven.mohr@snfachpresse.de

Gewürzmühle Nesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Translation

Yvonne Bulmer

Grieg Seafood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Advertising

Eckhard Preuß Marderstieg 7 D-21717 Fredenbeck Germany Phone +49 (0) 41 49 / 80 20 Fax +49 (0) 41 49 / 72 92 e.preuss@freenet.de

Inter Fresh Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Maass + Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Aleksandra Petersen Eurofish Magazine H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark Phone +45 333 777 63 Fax +45 333 777 56 aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk Frequency Subscription details

Möller, Jens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Multivac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

6 issues per year

Ness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Price: EUR 100,– To subscribe visit www.eurofish.dk or send an email to info@eurofish.dk

Nor Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Unless otherwise stated, the copyright for articles in this magazine is vested in the publisher. Articles may not be reproduced without written permission from the copyright holders.

Advertising rates and data available on request. The publishers cannot be held responsible for the nonap­ pearance of the magazine in cases beyond their control such as strikes, shortage of paper or similar circumstances.

Szegedfish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Eurofish

W. van der Zwan & Zn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

April 2 / 2010 C 44346

New distribution model Print plus

15,000 electronic copies

Cover Story Morpol / Laschinger

@

www.fischmagazin.de

3 / 2010

@

www.fischmagazin.de

märz / april 2010

TK-Fisch Convenience

C10152E

Fischmagazin

Fisch magazin a l S p e z i

Magazin für TK-Seafood, Chilled Food, Convenience

n n n Fachpresse Verlag hamburg

ISSN 1868-5943

EUROFISH

Sealane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Order your free trial Fax: +45 333 777 56 E-mail: info@eurofish.dk The Fish Publishing House

MAGAZINE

Salmco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Sunwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

ISSN 1868-5943

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Page

Fritz Kagerer

Kagerer profiliert sich mit Ethnic-Produkten

Heft im Heft

Vollsortiment in der Nische

Seite 14

Die Fachzeitschrift für die gesamte Fischwirtschaft

Hans-Jürgen Eckhardt

Ute Möllhoff

Anne Hoffmann

In-house Ad Eurofish Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Harry Thiemicke

Entry into the frozen portions segment Norway: Super chilled cod from Stamsund Aquaculture: Frozen cobia loins to launch at ESE Processing: Contract packaging for the seafood industry FISH INFO network

Eurofish Magazine

Seychelles Seafood Trading

Frische Exoten aus Leinenfang, ganz oder als Filet

FischMagazin

Seite 30

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n n n n n n n n n n Supply sources n n n n n n n n n n Crustaceans

Styropor® ( polystyrene ) compressors

Frozen seafood specialties

Hamburger Feinfrost GmbH - Frozen Quality Products

Gr. Elbstrasse 158 - 22767 Hamburg Tel.: +49 (40) 39 92 92-0, Fax: +49 (40) 39 92 92 39 E-Mail: info@hafro.de - www.hafro.de

SALMON SLICER... worldwide R. MAASS + PARTNER GMBH Röntgenstrasse 12 D-21493 Schwarzenbek Tel.: +49 41 51 / 866 955 Fax: +49 41 51 / 867 188 www.maass-slicers.de

Ristic AG Am Espen 15, D-90559 Oberferrieden Tel.: 0 91 83 / 40 90, Fax: 0 91 83 / 4 09 49 Web: www.ristic.com, E-Mail: info@ristic.com

Packaging

Insulated Containers

Salmon slicers

SALMCO Technik GmbH Reinskamp 1 D-22117 Hamburg Tel.: +49-40-713 14 72 Fax : +49-40-712 98 70 Internet: www.salmco.de E-Mail: info@salmco.com

Transport

D-27472 CUXHAVEN Grodener Chaussee 61 Telefon 0 47 21 / 208-0 Telefax 0 47 21 /208-100

Smoked salmon

FRANKFURT / MAIN-AIRPORT Gebäude 456 A, Raum Nr. 3435 Telefon 0 69 / 69 76 76-30 Telefax 0 69 / 69 76 76-50

Wire ropes Feinfischräucherei Noll GmbH D-46514 Schermbeck Tel.: 0 28 53/20 57, Fax: 14 65 Web: www.fisch-noll.de E-Mail: info@fisch-noll.de C 44346 April 2 / 2010

H E U R O FZIS INE 3

ISSN 1868-594

ine.com www.eurofishmagaz

MAGA

ution New distrib Print plus

model

15,000 electronic copies

Morpol / Lasc Cover Story

hinger

s segment frozen portion Entry into the Norw

cod from ay: Super chilled

Stamsund

at ESE cobia loins to launch Aquaculture: Frozen ry the seafood indust ct packaging for Processing: Contra INFO netwo rk FISH

The fastest way to advertise in Eurofish Magazine Eckhard Preuß

Aleksandra Petersen, Eurofish Magazine

Marderstieg 7, D-21717 Fredenbeck, Germany Phone +49 (0) 41 49 / 80 20, Fax +49 (0) 41 49 / 72 92 E-Mail: e.preuss@freenet.de

H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46, DK-1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark Phone +45 333 777 63, Fax +45 333 777 56 E-Mail: aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk

BONUS MATERIAL ONIC VERSION TR EC EL E TH IN ONLY AVAILABLE

Ukraine The paddlefish farming started in 1991 following a trip Mr Onuchenko made to the Soviet Union where the fish is also farmed.

Cherkassyrybkhoz

Diversifying into sturgeon production for meat and roe

The aquaculture industry in the Ukraine is dominated by the production of common carp farmed extensively in ponds. According to figures from the Food and Agriculture Organisation production of common carp amounted to 11,100 tonnes in 2008, followed by silver carp at just over 2,800 tonnes and then goldfish at just under 900 tonnes. Total aquaculture production in 2008 was down 45% compared to the year before.

A

mong the biggest producers of common carp in the Ukraine is the company Cherkassyrybkhoz. Established in the 60s the company today has 3,000 ha of ponds spread over six districts in the Cherkassy Region producing common carp, bighead carp, and grass carp. It is also one of the only farms in the Ukraine to grow paddlefish, which is cultured both for its meat and the roe. Paddlefish belong to the group of species that includes

Paddlefish volumes currently amount to 40 tonnes a year. The fish is used both for its roe and the meat.

67 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

sturgeons (acipenseriform) and occur naturally in slow-flowing rivers in the temperate USA. It is a filter feeder growing on plankton and can reach 2 m in length. The paddlefish is grown in polyculture with the other species and according to Alexander Onuchenko the chairman of the board, production amounts to 120-130 kilos per hectare. Total paddlefish production today is about 40 tonnes per year.

Currently the roe is used mainly to breed more fish including broodstock rather than to sell it as caviar, but once the broodstock situation stabilises the valuable roe will be sold. The farming of paddlefish has stirred the interest of researchers from the University of Kentucky in the United States and a few years ago a group of students came to Cherkassyrybkhoz to see how the fish was being farmed.

Paddlefish brought from the Soviet Union The paddlefish farming started in 1991 following a trip Mr Onuchenko made to the Soviet Union where the fish is also farmed. He returned with some paddlefish larvae which he grew on the farm where he was working at the time in Odessa. In 1997 he moved to Cherkassyrybkhoz and took 84 larvae with him which he grew to fully mature broodstock, a process that can take up to 11 years. Farming paddlefish is difficult says Mr Onuchenko as the larvae have a high mortality rate.

Research in Poland on paddlefish farming carried out in polyculture with common carp revealed an average cumulative mortality of almost 50% over a 24-month period. www.eurofishmagazine.com

UKRAINE

The volumes of paddlefish produced are currently quite modest, but the farm also produces about 700 tonnes of common carp, 800 tonnes of bighead and grass carp, and some very small quantities, about 20 tonnes, of pike, pikeperch and catfish.

Ninety percent of the fish is sold all around the country through supermarkets which have facilities for storing the fish live as that is the traditional way these fish are sold, while the remainder is distributed by the farm itself in the local area using special containers to carry live fish.

Sturgeon, bester, sterlet in recirulation system Mr Onunchenko considers that there has been a decline in fish farming in the Ukraine but that the industry is now picking up

Cherkassyrybkhos Company Fact File Cherkassyrybkhos, SR OOO Portovaya Str. 5 1806 Cherkassy Ukraine Tel./Fax: +380 472 724937 / 722776 onuchenko@inbox.ru

again. At Cherkassyrybkhoz the latest expansion plan is to farm sturgeon, bester, and sterlet in a recirculation system to be built in what used to be a processing facility on the farm. The broodstock for all these species has already been acquired and currently Cherkassyrybkhoz is negotiating with a German company Kronawitter, who will supply the equipment and the technical

Chairman of the Board: Alexander Onunchenko Products: Paddlefish, common carp, grass carp, bighead carp (about 1,600 tonnes in total per year) Ponds: 3,000 ha in Cherkassy Region Planned projects: 4,500 square metre recirculation facility to

knowhow and will also build the 4,500 square metre facility. The negotiations should be finalised by the middle of April. After the negotiations are finalised it will take about four years for the first harvest which should result in about 100 tonnes of meat and 3-5 tonnes of caviar.

Ukraine has witnessed a steady increase in the popularity of

fish since 2004 when consumption was 12.3 kg per capita to 2008 when it increased to18 kg per capita. Over the same period imports of fish and seafood increased from 570 thousand tonnes to over a million tonnes according to data from the State Committee of Fisheries. Much of this fish is frozen with frozen herring as the single largest item in terms of volume to be imported.

Other imported species include salmon, hake, mackerel, capelin, and saithe. Despite the increase in imports Mr Onunchenko says that demand for carp has not fallen. Carp is bought and sold live, he says, and therefore is quite a different product from the imported frozen fish. The tradition of buying live carp runs deep and for many Ukrainians this is the only way to buy fish, so for the moment at least, Mr Onunchenko does not anticipate any threat to his sales of carp.

Cherkassyrybkhoz is one of the bigger farms in the Ukraine with 3,000 ha of ponds spread over six districts.

www.eurofishmagazine.com

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

68

Pocherk today has four vessels, three fishing in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and one in the Adriatic.

variety of goby as well as a species of mullet because the flesh is similar to that of pikeperch and with a low fat content. The fish is filleted and the fillets are frozen and shipped to the United States and Canada.

High quality fish mince

Pocherk

Sending fillets to Canada and the US Capture fisheries in the Ukraine can be classified into distant water catches, catches from the Sea of Azov and Black Sea basins, and catches from inland fishing. Of the three it is the distant water catches that are by far the most significant in terms of volume, averaging more than 60% of the total catch over the five years from 2004 to 2008, catches from the Sea of Azov and Black Sea basins amounted on average to 22% while inland fishing catches averaged 18%.

T

he company Pocherk has been involved in the fishing business since 1982 when it was active in Kamchatka in the Sea of Okhotsk and had strong partnerships with Japanese, South Korean and German companies which lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In 1994 the company moved its area of operations to the Black Sea basin and focused on trading, but then four years later invested in a trawler to start fishing in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea basins targeting pike perch, mullet, goby, Azov anchovies, and Black Sea anchovies. When the fishing season in one sea came to an end the vessel would sail through the Kerchensky Strait and resume fishing in the other sea. In 2001

Catches of anchovy amount to just under 4,000 tonnes a year. They are cured in salt using a special recipe and sold on the local market.

Pocherk commissioned a second vessel to be build by a shipyard in Kerch in the Ukraine and a few years later bought a third vessel of the same type as the first trawler.

69 Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

Today the company is fishing pikeperch for which demand was high in Western Europe. However stocks have been depleted and so the company is now using a

Pocherk has also started to make good use of the trimmings from the fillets, the offcuts and the flesh that is left on the skeleton after the fish is filleted. These leftovers are made into fish mince. This is usually considered a cheap product based mainly on skin and fat, but in fact says Mr Cherepovsky, the Pocherk minced fish has a high proportion of proper meat which is obtained from the fish trimmings and offcuts. The fish meat is converted into surimi which the company then makes into crabsticks. Falling catches in the Black Sea basin has forced the company to seek alternative fishing grounds.

One of their vessels is in the process of being reflagged so that it can fish in the Adriatic Sea and land the catches in Montenegro where the company has established a processing facility. Once the reflagging process is completed there will be a total of three vessels fishing in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and one in the Adriatic Sea. Three of the vessels are owned by the company while the last one is leased. Catches amount to 1,200 tonnes of goby, 1,500 tonnes of mullet, 80-120 tonnes of bream and about 100 tonnes of pikeperch. The greatest volumes are the anchovies with 3,000 tonnes of Black Sea anchovy and 800 tonnes of Sea of Azov anchovy. The anchovies are cured in brine using a www.eurofishmagazine.com

UKRAINE

Pocherk Company Fact File Pocherk, OOO Kabelschikov Str. 138-A 71100 Berdyansk, Zaporozhskaya Region Ukraine Tel.: +380 676 182 016 Fax: +380 615 322 070 www.dobra-riba.com.ua marketing@dobra-riba.com.ua Director: Vladimir Cherepovsky Vessels: Four, of which three fish in the Black Sea, one in the Adriatic Sea

Apart from exporting frozen fillets to the US and Canada the company also sells to local supermarkets including Sil’po, Ramstore, Auchan and Metro.

special recipe and are sold on the Ukrainian market.

Association fights fleet expansion The decline in catches has made it necessary for the company not only to seek other fishing grounds, but also to obtain fish from other companies to supply its processing facilities. Pocherk and some of the other companies fishing in the Black Sea basin have formed themselves into an association named Priyazovie. It represents 10-12% of the companies fishing in the Black Sea and Vladimir is a director. The fish that Pocherk needs to supply its processing facilities are typically sourced from other members of the association as they are targeting the much the same species. In addition to fishing for the same species the members of the association have another common objective which is to www.eurofishmagazine.com

in Ukraine. The supermarkets buy many of the same products that the company exports, but in smaller quantities. These include fillets of goby, and mullet, whole mullet and minced fishmeat. The

Species: 1,200 tonnes of goby, 1,500 tonnes of mullet, 100 tonnes of pikeperch, 80-120 tonnes of bream, 3,000 tonnes of Black Sea anchovy and 800 tonnes of Sea of Azov anchovy.

Products: Fillets of goby and mullet, salt-cured anchovies Customers: Retailers in the Ukraine, Sil’po, Ramstore, Auchan, Metro Export markets: USA, Canada Employees: 278 Turnover: Approx. EUR2m

fillets are available as glazed and frozen, but also fresh and packed under modified atmosphere for hotels and restaurants can be produced.

try and restrict the unchallenged growth in the number of vessels that are fishing in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

According to Vladimir the expansion in the number of vessels is putting a lot of pressure on the stocks and reducing the catches. The association is therefore campaigning to reduce the number of vessels fishing in domestic waters, but will not interfere with expansions that will send vessels to fish in international waters.

Sales to domestic supermarkets In addition to selling to the United States and Canada the company supplies several retailers on the domestic market. These include local supermarkets such as Sil’po, and Ramstore, but also international chains like Auchan and Metro that are represented

Eurofish Magazine 2 / 2010

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27/29 April 2010

BRUSSELS ASMI • Hall 6

Stands n°1126 – n° 1127

Alaska Fisheries Since achieving statehood in 1959, Alaska’s constitution has mandated that «fish...be utilized, developed, and maintained on the sustained yield principle.»

Alaska is one of the world’s most abundant sources of wild seafood that live a natural lifecycle and feed upon a natural marine diet.

Come and visit the Alaska companies at the ASMI Pavilion : Best Use Cooperative - Blue North Trading - E and E Foods Icicle Seafoods-Icy Strait Seafoods - Intersea Fisheries Northern Keta Caviar – Ocean Beauty Seafood Pacific Harvest Seafood- Pacific Seafood Group Pacific Ocean Foods- Palomino - Peter Pan Seafoods Snopac Products-SPC-Triad Fisheries-Trident Seafoods.

AlAskA seAFood MArketing institute Corporate Headquaters : 311 N. Franklin St. Suite 200 Juneau. Alaska 99801 U.S.A. Phone : 907-465-5560 – Fax : 907-465-5572 e-mail : info@alaskaseafood.org – Website : www.alaskaseafood.org