[ EVENTS ESE ] a refrigerator. One technical difference is that film is not sealed to the tray and is therefore less susceptible to being punctured. Instead the film completely wraps the tray. The company is supplying fish with a weight of 300-400 g usually two pieces to a package, but the company has introduced a MAP package with a single fish as well as one with three pieces. The latter vary in weight from 600 g to 1,000 g.

While the MAP packaged fish are generally portion sized, Cromaris offers fish in sizes from 200-300 g to over 1,000 g. The MAP fish is currently being exported to Italy at the request of certain customers, but is also sold on the Croatian market. In Italy Cromaris is not the only supplier of MAP fish, but the difference, says Mr Furlan is that the others packages are all exactly the same. Somewhere a producer or wholesaler gets the raw material and places

it in a package, while we on the other hand supply all the information needed about the fish, the producer, certification, where it comes from, what area and how it is farmed etc. is all provided on the package. If the retailer wants we can also descale the fish before packaging it. All we need from the retailer is the final price and then we weigh each package and print the label. The retailer does not have to do anything beyond placing the package on the shelf.

The product is slightly more expensive, but then it is very fresh. With 3-4 hours the fish goes from the water into the package and is on its way to the retailers. The company gurantees that its fish will be no more than 30 hours old at delivery in Italy. This is our advantage says Mr Furlan, other countries cannot match our rapid delivery times and once Croatia joins the EU that time will be reduced even further as there will be no customs control.

Lofoten Seafood

Cod and farmed salmon products from the Lofoten Islands

L

ofoten Seafood is a family-run company farming salmon and producing cod in the season. We are a small but vertically integrated salmon farming company with a hatchery, ongrowing cages, processing, and sales and marketing operations, says Katharina Mosseng. The company has been operating since 1980 and now the second generation is gradually taking over the reins. Salmon production amounts to about 3,000 tonnes per year, making the company one of the smallest in Norway to have the whole chain of production. We would like to expand operations, says Ms Mosseng, but there is a problem with licences. We have three at the moment, but getting more is very expensive so we have elected to grow slowly. At the processing unit the company produces fresh and frozen salmon. Our production may be small, but it is of the highest quality, says Ms Mosseng, and this is something we want to maintain. Every stage of the production is rigourously controlled by us to ensure that the quality is not www.eurofishmagazine.com

compromised anywhere along the chain. Italy is the company’s most important market, but exports go also to Spain, Denmark, France, and other European countries. The products are also exported to America and Asia, but via middlemen rather than directly. Over the next couple of years the company’s aim is to be able to supply salmon all round the year, a strategy that will call for at least two more licenses and will increase production to 5,000-6,000 tonnes a year. In addition to salmon, the company also produces stockfish, dried cod, which is very popular in southern Europe, particularly Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In fact Italy is such an important market for the company that three years ago it opened an outlet there so that it could sell its products directly to its customers. Stockfish is a traditional product that has been produced for decades on the Lofoten Islands. The company buys the cod from fishing boats between February and April. The fish is cleaned and hung up to dry on wooden

Lofoten Seafood uses locally caught cod and its own farmed salmon to produce fresh and processed products for markets in Europe.

frames for five months, a process that removes almost 80 of the water from the flesh and results in a very dry product with an extremely high protein content. No part of the raw material is wasted. The roe and liver from the fish are valuable products in themselves, the roe is consumed while the liver is used for cod liver oil. The lack of water means that the product is easy to store. In Italy the product is soaked in water to rehydrate it. Today there are only some 20 producers of stockfish on Lofoten who make some 3,000 tonnes of stockfish mainly destined for Italy and

another 2,000 tonnes for Nigeria, where stockfish heads are also in demand. In Norway too the fish has a market. Lofoten Seafood also smokes salmon and cod. The raw material used for this production is so fresh, emphasises Ms Mosseng, that the final product has a very special quality and taste. And for those who are interested in how these products are made, the company will organise a tour of its production facilities and a tasting session that is sure to leave a lasting impression. Eurofish Magazine 3/ 2013

19