Production starts at new feed factory

Machinery for the medical dosing of feed is kept in an isolated part of the factory.

The company Noordzee farms seabass, seabream, and meagre in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, processing and exporting the fish to countries in Europe and to Russia. A planned expansion to its fish feed factory will contribute to the integration of operations enabling the company to maintain even closer control over all the production parameters.

With 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 areas and any expansion to the processing facility might 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.

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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 and shipped to the international sales and marketing company that Noordzee has set up in the Netherlands. From here the product is distributed to the rest of Europe, about 40% to the UK, while the rest goes to Belgium, Spain, Denmark, France and within the Netherlands itself. The transport is rapid; if a batch of fish is harvested and arrives at the processing factory in the morning, it is processed through the day and can leave in the evening arriving three days later in Breskens in the Netherlands, from where it is further distributed. The entire production is fresh fish, whole round, whole gutted, and fillets. Fillets form the majority of the production amounting to about 65% of the total, however this is species specific, almost the entire seabass production is made into fillets, while seabream tends to be shipped whole.

Large increase in feed capacity planned for 2017

The fish feed plant is designed for two extruder lines. Currently only one line has been installed and Mr Senturk is in discussions with the supplier regarding the second, as the first line has reached its capacity. All the groundwork has already been done and the line can be completed when the extruder, dryer, and coating machine are connected. Other parts of the line such as the silos, grinding, and packaging machines are already in place. With the new line capacity will more than double from 35,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes of which 80% will be used for the company’s own requirement. The remainder is sold to other farmers, but not through the open market, instead fish farmers may ask for a feed to be produced to their specifications. This may be special formulations for seabass and seabream, but could also be for trout. Direct sales on the open market are not easy in Turkey, says Mr Senturk, as many farming companies have their own feed plants, so the open market amounts to only 20-30 percent of the total. Feed companies that do not have their own fish production and that exist only to supply the market, need to find their way around this issue. The Noordzee factory is also licensed to produce pet feed and, in addition, is one of only two factories in Turkey that has a license to manufacture medicated fish feeds. While young fish are typically inoculated against disease, older fish may need medication if, for example, higher than normal water temperatures provoke a bacterial outbreak.

The new feed line and the planned processing factory will enable Noordzee to expand at either end of the value addition chain giving rise to potentially profitable opportunities in the future.