Demonstrating the next generation of salmon processing

The event, held at the company’s demonstration and training center in Copenhagen, gave attendees valuable insights into key technological advances in salmon processing and provided a forum to discuss the latest processing innovations and industry trends.

With hands-on demonstrations, guest speakers and a virtual reality experience, salmon processors could engage all their senses at the event in a full exploration of salmon processing equipment and software.

During his presentation, Trond Davidsen, President of the International Salmon Farmers Association, discussed current trends and challenges of salmon farming and shared his expectations of the future of the industry.

Grant Rosewarne, CEO and Managing Director of New Zealand King Salmon, also spoke at the event, highlighting the uniqueness of the New Zealand salmon industry compared to the global salmon market.

He was impressed by demonstrations of the slicing machines and the new QC system: “I’m impressed by the slicing machines that are able to go from C slice to D slice – gentle handling that suits our premium brands and achieves really good presentation of our smoked salmon,” he said.

He continued, “The new QC system could really help us determine the processes for individual fillets, and I’m waiting to see how that goes further. This has been a really valuable trip despite the long traveling hours from NZ!”

Demonstrattion highlights

Marel’s new quality scanner MS 2920 proved very popular with guests. The scanner isn’t yet released for sale, but demonstrations showed how it enables better control of sorting fillets downstream based on quality.

The world premiere of FleXicut Salmon, another product yet to be released, also drew considerable attention, with demonstrations of how the machine automatically removes pinbones from pre-rigor salmon.

There was a lot of interest in the newly released Salmon Deheader MS 2720 with demonstrations of how this machine’s new and unique cutting principles help improve yield and achieve a better flow by performing high-precision cutting for optimum yield on every fish and by enabling the automatic transfer of deheaded fish into Marel’s filleting machine.

Demonstrations of the new addition to the Filleting Machine MS 2730 – an automatic infeed that ensures fish enter the machine at a steady pace and in the correct position for cutting – also attracted a lot of attention.

The demonstrations were not confined to the Progress Point demo hall, with Marel inviting guests to walk through modern processing facilities for a unique 360° tour of quality salmon production using 3D glasses. This new immersive demo experience was a big hit at the event.  

Full production control

In today’s hi-tech salmon processing environment, the ability to track and analyze data is key to being competitive. In the “Innova office”, visitors could keep track of all the data in real-time as it was being generated by the machines in the demo hall, to get a real sense of how the software could further add value to their production.

Marel software experts were at hand to demonstrate how this data can be used to gain full production control, showing how easy it is to manage yield, throughput, efficiency, quality and food safety, as well as stock levels and movement with Innova.

As Grant Rosewarne commented, “Innova software is making a huge contribution to our production plants. Innova not only helps us maximize yield but also reduce labor costs and help us use our labor intelligently.”

Exciting times for salmon processing

“This is the 17th time we’ve held the Salmon ShowHow and we’re thrilled with today’s event,” said Lars Jöker, Managing Director Marel Salmon. “These are especially exciting times for salmon processing, with greater than ever levels of automation and ever-increasing opportunities for raising quality and creating new and more diverse products.”