Processing

Established in 1979 in the Daruvar region of Central Croatia, Irida was the first and the largest fish processing plant on the Croatian mainland. Initially occupied with primary processing, branding, and freezing of freshwater fish, Irida in the past decade has expanded into processing marine fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, molluscs and other fish and seafood products. In 2002 Irida became part of Ledo, one of the biggest frozen food manufacturers in Southern Europe. Ledo is now the main brand of the company along with Irida, KPlus and others. The owner of the company is the Agrokor Group, one of the largest privately held companies in Croatia with 40,000 employees.

Situated along the river Ilova, Ribnjačarstvo Končanica is one of the oldest fish farms in Croatia. The first ponds were hand-made by Hungarian and Czech specialists in 1900.

The usability and economic value of a lot of products – including foods – depend heavily on whether certain temperatures are maintained during their transport and storage. Deviations not only shorten a product’s shelf life but can also lead to its premature spoilage. But what possibilities are there for controlling continuous adherence to the required temperature?

We have known for a century that extremely high pressure has a sterilising effect. But only today is technology so advanced that this effect can be put into practice. High pressure processing (HPP) not only extends the shelf-life of foods but also enables the meat of raw shellfish and crustaceans to be removed from the shell completely and still intact. The result: higher yield.

More than 90 million tonnes of fish and seafood are available every year from the fisheries sector, plus a further 50 million tonnes from aquaculture. Only about half of these huge quantities is used directly for human consumption, however. The other half – waste from gutting, trimmings and spoiled fish – finishes up in fishmeal or is disposed of otherwise. But this is misuse because even what is considered to be “waste” has a high potential.

The share of processed fish products on the market is growing constantly. Jobs that used to be carried out by hand are today performed more and more often by machines. In the meantime there are not only machines for the more basic work such as removing scales and slime but also for highly sensitive processes like filleting, fillet trimming or exact portioning

Jens Møller from Denmark holds a patent for the production of caviar imitation from seaweed. His company of the same name is based in Lemvig and can produce about six tonnes of the product per day. It is traded internationally mainly under the brand name Cavi-Art.

Heiko Lenk employs about 20 people in Asia and Europe who together took care of about 8,500 tonnes of product in 2008. Asia is one of the most important regions for buying and processing fish and seafood. Heiko Lenk recognized this fact early on and set up his own service company in Thailand to offer support during procurement of seafood.

Packaging, labelling and trouble shooting are services that co-packer Best Harvest offers to the food industry and trade. The company’s four lines can pack fish fingers just as easily as fillets in tubular bags or cartons (top or end load). Best Harvest also develops special machines for solving individual problems.