A VIVid reconnection at VIV Europe 2022

For three days, Marel presented its innovations for innovative poultry processing. Visitors were excited to be able to touch and feel some real machines again at the booth and to get a one-on-one explanation from the experts.

Unity, excellence and innovation

Arie Tulp, Marel Poultry Sales and Marketing Director, expressed his enthusiasm about the VIV exhibition: “One of our customers told me: ‘At IFFA, you showed us how big you are. Here at VIV Europe, you showed us really who you are’, and I couldn’t have said it better. Without knowing our core values unity, innovation and excellence, our customers praised exactly these three values. ‘Your people know precisely what they’re talking about. Whether it is about evisceration or software, the solid professional knowledge is always excellent.’ The same customer said: ‘I’ve been here four times now, and I still see the same faces around. Your poultry division shows such unity, for years and years now’.”

Roger Claessens, EVP Marel Poultry, adds, “As for innovation, customers tell us that they are really ready for the digital transition towards developments such as RFID and IMPAQT. They also fully understood our building blocks concept for breast meat order processing, what we displayed here. Our new ATHENA breast meat deboner is the eyecatcher of course, but we only heard positive feedback about the way we connect it to the digital journey downstream."

Two-way communication

After her visit to the VIV Europe exhibition, Allison Smith, Site Director at Cranswick Country Foods Fresh Poultry in Suffolk, UK, said, “I do not often attend shows like this as it does not always fit in my day-to-day operation, however this time I was pleasantly surprised, and I felt like it was a great utilization of my time. I felt incredibly welcome here at the Marel booth and it all looked fantastic. I met some nice people with superior in-depth knowledge in food processing from whom I learned a great deal. Although I have 30 years of experience in the industry, I still managed to expand my knowledge with some new aspects of poultry processing today. What I also found extremely valuable is that you listen to your customers’ needs and that you are open to a two-way discussion about innovations. We can bring in our own ideas from our experience, and you are willing to involve us in your developments. This is really exciting!

Personally, I take great pride in our facility’s hygiene and cleanliness, therefore I am particularly enthusiastic about your one-touch solution for breast deboning and the downstream processes for automated fillet handling. This is an enormous hygienic advantage in many aspects, one of which is being a huge labor-saving solution, up to about 16 people.

Myself and my teams at Cranswick are also passionate for training and developing the future generation of Engineers and Machine Operators. Your machinery presents an opportunity to carry on with this as well as utilizing the intelligent technology.”

Connected solutions

For Marel, connectivity was the driving topic, lying at the root of all innovative solutions presented by Marel.

ATLAS RFID Flock Intake is an example of this connectivity. Until now, live bird handling needed many hand-written paper notes, without too much connection to the rest of the process. Farm, flock, truck, truck driver, weight, all data had to be identified on paper to be able to trace back a faulty product at the end of the process. ATLAS RFID Flock Intake does away with manual input and connects live bird supply to all downstream processes, ensuring end-to-end traceability.

Marel’s new Nuova-i eviscerator represents intelligent evisceration management with full connectivity. Instead of using manual settings, the eviscerator connects to software to adjust settings according to the recipes entered via the HMI touchscreen. In this way, deviant product sizes or shapes can easily be handled, while optimum machine performance can be monitored remotely thanks to the internet connection.  

IMPAQT is another connected solution. This overarching software package analyzes losses and stand-stills of all equipment in the primary processing line and finds the exact reasons. Resolving an issue can sometimes be done remotely, in the control room, without requiring a technical team to enter the factory.

ProFlow Breast Meat software connects the entire flow of breast meat after deboning. It matches the deboned breast meat products with customer orders; for every breast fillet or tenderloin, the best destination will be found automatically, be it bulk, retail packing, or a convenience food line. This can be done by using connected ‘building blocks’ such as IRIS FI, SensorX, Spectra, I-Cut 122, RoboBatcher and Fillet Distributor. ProFlow Breast Meat software is the connecting and controlling link for all this equipment. 

Serious interest

Around 19,000 visitors from 136 countries traveled to Utrecht to see almost 600 exhibitors at the international poultry trade fair VIV Europe. Visitors from as far away as Iran, Bahrein, Panama, Guatamala, Surinam, Libya, Tanzania and Cameroon showed a serious interest in Marel’s portfolio. This goes to show that Marel is not just offering solutions for high-capacity processors, but can also find suitable suggestions for processors in emerging markets.

Arie Tulp concluded, "It was a fantastic show, probably our best exhibition set-up ever. Customers told me Marel stood out far above other participants. We were surely connected for success and we will continue to do so!"

Marel would like to thank all visitors to its VIV Europe 2022 stand.