ESTONIA
Making the most out of a few products
Extending the market for sprat and Baltic herring The Estonian Trawling Association (ETA) is one of Estonia’s three producer organisations. Its factory, which processes sprat and Baltic herring, went on stream at the end of August 2010. Now, the organisation is looking to increase its capacity, enlarge its use of automation, and extend a quay that will improve the offloading of catches.
E
TA is based at Paldiski, not far from Tallinn, on the site of a former Soviet submarine base and naval training facility, which is now an industrial estate and port. It has five members who fish with small trawlers and represent about 8,000 tonnes of the national quota for Baltic herring and sprat.
Looking to increase capacity Currently, average in-season production is approximately 10,000 metric tonnes, which has remained stable over the past three or four years. Freezing capacity is 180 tonnes per 24 hours for a single species and 140 metric tonnes for assorted species. Storage capacity is 2,500 metric tonnes for assorted products and 3,000 tonnes for a single product. A new factory is planned that will increase capacity, which will in turn increase the need for more fish. After the planned expansion, freezing capacity will increase to more than 200 tonnes. Currently, the catches are unloaded two kilometres from the factory, requiring them to be moved by truck. If permission to extend the quay is granted, it will be possible to pump the fish directly from the boats. Block frozen Baltic sprat and herring for the Eastern European 52
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market are the organisation’s main products. Other products include spicy marinated and salted fish, and individually frozen headed-and-gutted herring, which has proven popular in Ukraine. ETA produces dried products as well, including smelt, roach, and pike. The fish are salted for four to five days and then dried in special ovens, so they contain nothing but salt. Salted sprat, a typical product for the Romanian market, has a salt content of 27. It is eaten as a snack and is especially popular in autumn as an accompaniment to the young Romanian wines, which are drunk with the salted fish. The shelf life of spiced products is three months. For salted products, it is six months, owing to the high salt content.
The importance of knowing your markets Nearly all (99) of the organisation’s production is exported. Main markets include Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Small but growing markets include Latvia, Lithuania, Israel, the Balkan countries, with minor sales to Finland. The remainder is sold to Estonian producers. Ukraine buys both spicy sprat and frozen blocks for production. Because of the two- to three-week delivery time by railroad, Kazakhstan buys only frozen products. At least 95
Mauno Leppik, Managing Director, Estonian Trawling Association
of sales to Romania is salted sprat. Before the ban on the import of fresh products, the company used to sell large quantities of frozen blocks to Russian canneries, but currently they sell only readyto-eat products, mostly spicy sprat. Russia is part of a Customs Union, which includes Belorussia and Kazakhstan. Ukraine is not part of the Customs Union. ETA’s customers are almost exclusively wholesale distributors, although in Ukraine, they sell directly to retail markets, who buy bulkpacked sprat and sell it in stores by weight. Krapesk is a well-known brand in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. ETA retained the brand name and logo, which belonged originally to one of the organisation’s founding members, because of
its recognition value, based on a well-established reputation in key Russian, Ukrainian, and Kazakh markets. The expansion of the facilities will increase the need for fish. PO members are not obliged to sell their fish to the organisation, although most do. ETA will have to go further afield to satisfy the demand and purchase raw material from sources outside the organisation. For example, in May they buy coastal sprat, which are not caught using trawl nets but special nets used by coastline fishermen, who are not members of the PO. Surplus fish are sold to other producers.
A well-established workflow The fish, mostly a mix of herring and sprat, are graded mechanically www.eurofishmagazine.com
27/03/15 7:59 PM