Capelin roe processing over

Production of capelin roe at HB Grandi came to a close last Saturday when the last cartons of roe at both Akranes and Vopnafjördur factories were sent to the freezers. Now the two factories are clearing up after a busy season and this can be expected to continue to the end of the month, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

Gunnar Hermannsson, who has been in charge of capelin roe production at Akranes is satisfied with the season as production went well and fishing was good while it lasted.

‘Now we are clearing up and cleaning the production lines, which is a much bigger job than many people would imagine. Everything needs to be dismantled, piece by piece, cleaned, and re-assembled. There are ten to twelve people working on this and I expect it will take a good three weeks to have everything squared away,' Gunnar Hermannsson said.

Magnús Róbertsson, plant manager at the Vopnafjördur factory, is also happy with the season. While production went like a dream, spells of difficult weather ensured that less capelin found its way to the factory than would have been normal during the roe season.

‘They have coped very well at Akranes and as the weather stopped the fleet fishing for some of the time, there was less reason than ever to send much raw material our way,' he said, commenting that as at Akranes, the Vopnafjördur staff are clearing up after the season and preparing for the herring and mackerel fisheries that are set to start after the Seamen's Day stopover. Ahead is still production from the freezer trawlers' offcuts at Vopnafjördur and this is set to start shortly.