HB Grandi: 10,000 tonne milestone celebrated

HB Grandi's pelagic factory at Vopnafjordur passed a milestone on 1 September 2010, as 10,000 tonnes of frozen mackerel and herring products had passed through the plant during this summer's season. The event was celebrated with an extra-special coffee break, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

According to plant manager Magnus Robertsson, production has gone very well, especially after the decision was taken to send two of the company's pelagic vessels to operate as a pair team. Fishing had been slow in the previous week but has been good this week after the pair team began fishing together.

Vilhjalmur Vilhjalmsson, head of HB Grandi's pelagic division, said that recent catches have tended to be mixed, but the percentage of mackerel taken with the herring has not yet caused any problems., although there are some problems when blue whiting turn up in the landings and Magnus Robertsson agreed that this causes difficulties in production.

‘The blue whiting is a headache as it goes into the graders with the herring and is difficult to separate from the smaller grades of herring. This means that some small herring that would otherwise be fine for freezing has been graded out and ended up in fishmeal production,' he said, commenting that blue whiting also causes problems if they find their way into the herring filleting machines.

Lundey NS is now in port in Vopnafjördur with 620 tonnes on board and production has been going well. Faxi RE was in with 280 tonnes last Sunday and Ingunn AK docked at Vopnafjördur with 420 tonnes on Tuesday. All three have been fishing in an area 50 to 60 nautical miles from Vopnafjordur.