Fish processing in the digital world

Innovation, digitalization and the value of knowledge

In the morning session, guest speakers Dag Sletmo, Senior Vice President and Seafood Analyst at Norway's leading financial group DNB, and Pétur Hafsteinn Pálsson, CEO of Icelandic fish company Vísir hf, emphasized the accelerating impact of digitalization on fish processing.

Dag Sletmo drew on the experience of the Norwegian fishing industry which is already putting sensors aboard fishing vessels in order to, for example, better understand the dynamics of the fish stocks and better manage resources.

Pétur Pálsson talked about the opportunities being created by digital solutions in the industry, commenting that “The seafood industry is at a bigger crossroad than we’ve ever seen.”

One reason for this is that the time it takes to process fish is now much shorter than in the past. “You have the equipment to finish production in 10 minutes – producing all kinds of product,” he said.

Pálsson also said that market demands are driving a lot of the new innovations and that the value of knowledge has increased.

Knowing what’s coming into the factory two days before it reaches the factory not only makes it easier to fill orders and fully utilize the raw material, it also helps make wild fish processing more competitive with the farmed fish industry.

As for social responsibility, Pálsson said the technological advances are not only helping people to keep their jobs, they’re also keeping those jobs in the fishing villages, and improving the types of jobs required in the industry.

Vísir has been at the technological forefront of the Icelandic fishing industry for a long time, and now has a twenty-year database of information to draw on. This helps them know how to get a certain balance of species and ratio of sizes at any given time of year, while also being important for traceability. Summing up he said, “The better the information you have, the better the decision you make.”

Sigurdur Ólason, EVP Marel Fish, emphasized how Marel sees its role amid all the technological changes.

Future-ready demonstrations and discussions

In the demo hall, equipment demonstrations were running all day, with presentations of various solutions including a FleXicut line with multiple outputs including robot packing into boxes on one side and robot packing onto trays on the other.

For the first time, demonstrations also spilled onto the second floor of the exhibition center, with an Innova Food Processing Software control room showing how Innova helps monitor and control processing with equipment in the demo hall. This is also where Innova seminars were held, aimed at showing how to take advantage of the full production control that Innova offers.

Other seminars during the afternoon covered topics such as automating quality control, optimizing retail solutions, and making the most of the FleXicut service program.

The panel discussion at the end of the day brought some lively debate on how the whitefish processing industry will move forward, with panelists addressing not only the technological advances themselves but also the way people respond differently to such changes. As Pétur Pálsson put it during the panel discussion, “The fish company must create the culture to embrace technology.”