TURKEY
Noordzee takes a step towards complete integration
Production starts at new feed factory The company Noordzee farms seabass, seabream, and meagre in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, processing and exporting the ďŹ sh to countries in Europe and to Russia. A planned expansion to its ďŹ sh feed factory will contribute to the integration of operations enabling the company to maintain even closer control over all the production parameters.
W
ith a fish production capacity now reaching 8,000 tonnes, and exports to several countries, Noordzee is among the important players in the Turkish farmed fish industry. The company specialises in the cultivation of seabass and seabream, which are sold fresh, round in a variety of sizes, and as fillets cut to customer specifications. Efforts have also been made with meagre (Argyrosomus regius), but while the fish has many positive facets, rapid growth, good feed conversion ratio, resistance to disease, firm flesh, large size, the market has not been convinced says Mr Senturk. Seabass and seabream production has expanded regularly since the company was established in 1998, and also, about 18 months ago, it built a fish feed plant to meet its growing requirement for feed.
Feed plant to coexist with processing facility Located in Aydin near Izmir in a newly laid out industrial area, the feed factory is headed by Yahya Senturk, for whom this is the fifth plant that he is establishing over a career spanning 26 years, which has given him experience with feed plants and equipment both within Turkey and in other parts of the world. The site where the plant is located is large and in addition to the fish feed plant will also soon have a factory for the preparation of ready-to-cook meals. The main office of the company as well as the existing fish processing plant are located in Gulluck near Bodrum, while the fish cages are spread across five sites in Gulluck and in Didim. However, Gulluck and Bodrum are well-known tourist aprocessing facility might
Machinery for the medical dosing of feed is kept in an isolated part of the factory.
The ingredients in fish feed go through a complex process before they emerge as the pellets shown here. 48
have run into problems with the tourism industry – despite the fact that Noordzee is one of the biggest tax payers to the local municipality. As a result the company decided to locate the feed factory in Aydin, where tourism is not an issue, and will also build the processing plant for the new products there.
These items are intended mainly for export markets and will be frozen. Noordzee obtains the juveniles for on-growing from an external hatchery, the last barrier to complete integration. The juveniles are grown to market-size and are then harvested, processed
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