EUR10.3mln fish plant in Murmansk will feature X-ray and water-jet cutting technology
Russia’s Murman Seafood Company, which is building a fish factory in Kola near Murmansk, has signed a EUR10.3mln contract for delivery of groundfish processing plant based on X-ray and water-jet cutting technology, according to Murman Seafood.
Equipment
Under the contract Valka ehf from Iceland will outfit the new facility with a fully automated pin-bone and portion-cutting line. This breakthrough technology introduced by Valka in 2011 is based on a combination of X-ray for locating fish bones and water-jet robot cutters to cut out bones and portion fish fillets accurately. (Valka is a high-tech company that designs and builds progressive systems for groundfish & salmon processing).
Production capacity and range
The new Kola plant will give Murman Seafood the ability to completely maximize its product yield with a daily capacity of up to 80 tons of raw material. The new plant is scheduled to begin operation approximately in August 2019.
The raw material will be delivered to the factory mostly in frozen form, though it can also process chilled fish. The final products will be both double frozen and refreshed. According to Denis V. Khiznyakov, Manager of Land-Based Production for Murman Seafood, the company looks forward to expanding beyond its current offerings of traditional fillets into high-value products and reduced waste.
Fishing capacity
Nowadays the company runs five own fishing vessels and one chartered vessel. In 2018 Murman Seafood has quotas for capture of cod, haddock, ocean perch, etc. all together amounting to more than 15,000 metric tons.
Capture quotas of Murman Seafood Company for commercial offshore operations in 2018
|
Species |
Fishing zone |
TOTAL, metric tons |
|
Capelin |
areas under international agreements |
966.4 |
|
Ocean perch 3LN |
NAFO |
2056.7 |
|
Halibut |
NAFO |
465.2 |
|
Halibut black |
West Greenland (to the north from 68 degree N) |
28.1 |
|
Halibut black |
West Greenland (to the south from 68 degree N) |
236.1 |
|
Haddock |
areas under international agreements |
2173.3 |
|
Mackerel |
Faroese fishing zone |
505.9 |
|
Cod |
areas under international agreements |
8665.4 |
Note: the table has been compiled from the corresponding orders of Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries.
Investment quotas
Murman Seafood is one of eight seafood companies in the nation’s North Basin, which have been granted higher fishing quotas (so called investment quotas) in exchange for constructing domestic processing plants in Russia. The company’s new plant in Kola is one of them.
Along with Murman Seafood, the list of such quota holders includes ООО Rybotorgovaya set, OOO Gruppa Barents, OOO RK Polyarnoye more+, AO Arkhangelskiy opytnyi vodoroslevyi kombinat, OOO Russkaya Treska, OOO MurmanStroy and OOO Park.