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Frioluz Coldstore attracts companies with markets on diff erent continents to the Canary Islands
by Eurofish
Frioluz Coldstore attracts companies with markets on different continents to the Canary Islands Serving customers from all over the world
A cold store in the port of Las Palmas on the Canary Islands has converted to renewable energy to reduce its carbon footprint and its electricity bills.
Located about 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula and a mere 250 km off the coast of Africa the Canary Islands are a part of Spain strategically located in the Atlantic Ocean. Strategic, because their proximity to Africa while being part of the EU off ers advantages for fi shing vessels with cargos destined for both Africa and Europe, as well as for Latin America.
Created from the fusion of two cold store companies
Among the companies capitalising on this location is Frioluz, a cold store dealing primarily with the seafood industry. Cold stores are storage areas for products that are already frozen, either on board a vessel or at a land-based facility from where they arrive in a container. Frioluz was formed by the merger in 2019 of two companies, Frigoluz and Spanish Pelagic, to create the largest cold store on the Canary Islands with a capacity of 6,000 sq. m of storage space. Frigoluz was established in 1998, while Spanish Pelagic was founded six years later in 2004. Th e merged company took over the Spanish Pelagic cold store which is located in Port de la Luz in Las Palmas, the largest port on the Canary Islands.
Since the merger Frioluz has renovated the cold store painting the external walls and investing in solar energy. Th e latter has been a particularly shrewd decision given the increase in energy prices over the last months. Th e total amount that went into the renovation was more than EUR4m and it has taken the last two years to accomplish. Th e solar panels are placed on the roof of the cold store and form the second largest private solar power installation on the Canary Islands, says Segundo Barber, managing director of Frioluz, and the largest one in the port. Th e investments made by Frioluz were part of an agreement made with the port authorities under which the company’s lease on the cold store was extended by the port to 2036 on the understanding that investments would be made in the facilities. Th e solar panels are intended to meet the entire energy requirements of the cold store, but the installation is still being fi ne-tuned, and the technicians are working out its precise capabilities. Although the sun
Nina Ström, the commercial manager, and Segundo Barber, the managing director, of Frioluz Coldstore.
shines brightly and regularly on the Canary Islands (as evidenced by all the fruits and vegetables produced there) generating electricity from the sun also depends on the time of the year, the intensity of the light, the ambient temperature, and other factors. Mr Barber expects the system to have paid for itself within three to four years and possibly even sooner given the high energy prices prevailing at the moment, which have had a considerable impact on the company. A new contract is due to be signed with the electricity supplier and Mr Barber anticipates a steep hike in prices. He expects however that the solar panels will defray some of the expected increase in energy costs and once the system is completely up and running any excess energy generated can be sent back to the grid, so high electricity prices could benefi t the company too.
The Frioluz cold store is located in the port of Las Palmas, the largest port on the Canary Islands, and close to the west coast of Africa.
When a consignment arrives, it is rapidly processed and deposited in storage ensuring the integrity of the cold chain is not compromised.
Fish, the main product for storage
Frioluz works primarily with the storage of fi sh and seafood. Its predecessor, Spanish Pelagic, was created to work with Dutch clients fi shing for small pelagics under a fi sheries partnership agreement between the EU and Morocco. Th e storage of large volumes of frozen small pelagics is diff erent from the storage of other species of fi sh, explains Mr Barber. Th e former can be simply placed in a cold store chamber in pallets while the latter, the volumes of which are smaller, are stored in boxes and arranged on shelves within the cold store. Th is diff erence in storage arrangements refl ects not only the type and volumes of fi sh but also different markets and customers. Th e non-pelagic species are often intended for the local market on the Canary Islands and will be distributed in small quantities to the local fi sh shops and supermarkets, while the small pelagic fi sh is often stored prior to being shipped to a diff erent destination altogether, for example, to countries in Africa or Latin America. To cater to these diff erent requirements the cold store area in the Frioluz facility is a mix of chambers for large volume lower value species and for high value fi sh in small volumes. Th ere are thus eight large chambers some of which are equipped with shelving to store pallets, while the rest are not.
Storage for frozen and chilled products
Several nations’ fl eets are active in the area and bring their fi sh to Las Palmas to store. Th ese include Japanese, Chinese, and Dutch fi shing vessels, often freezer trawlers that freeze the fi sh on board and unload the vessels directly into the cold store. Th e other clients are those shipping containers fi lled with frozen fi sh intended for the market on the Canary Islands. Th is product is sold to the hotels, restaurants, and catering sectors, supermarkets and fi shmongers. Fish is the main product that Frioluz deals with, but some space is also used for meat, poultry, and seafood. Th e cold store is also equipped to accommodate chilled products at 5 degrees C which is mainly used for the storage of fruit. Th e need to manage the fl ow of goods through the cold store is critical. Th e Dutch vessels when they arrive can require storage for 4,000 tonnes of product at a time corresponding to a fi fth of the cold store’s capacity. Proper planning is vital to run a smooth operation where clients are not turned away for want of space yet at the same time the space is used optimally with the least vacant area at any point in time.
The cold store has a capacity of 20,000 tonnes, corresponding to over 7,000 pallets, spread over eight large storage chambers.
Investments have focused on sustainability
Modern coldstores are often highly automated with much of the work being carried out by automated systems that are controlled by a central computer and are capable of depositing boxes and collecting them without human interference. At the Frioluz facility, several upgrades have made the cold store more sustainable. Apart from the solar panels all the lighting has been switched to LED, the refrigeration machinery has also been modernised, but complete automation is not foreseen, because the company does not receive homogenous products which can be conveyed directly into the storage chambers. Often when the product arrives it fi rst needs to be classifi ed or go through a registration process which calls for human intervention before it can be stored. Frioluz provides a number of services to its clients such as labelling, grouping, wrapping in protective fi lm, or preparing the products in accordance with client requirements. Th e company will also off er space to the client if the product has to be processed in some way, for example cut into smaller pieces and repackaged. Whatever the service provided the company provides a record of the conditions under which the product is maintained. Traceability is a legal requirement as the company must be able to document to both its clients and the authorities that the product has been maintained at the
