Founded in 2003 and based in Kopavogur Iceland, Valka specializes in the development and marketing of equipment and automation solutions for the fish processing industry. Although a relatively young company, Valka has already built a reputation for manufacturing high quality products. The company designs high technology hardware and software aimed at enhancing productivity and increasing profitability.
Technology
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X-rays can penetrate matter without harming it and at the same time reveal components of different density within it. This ability can be of use in the seafood sector, too, for example during material inspection and quality tests, or in intelligent processing machines. Apart from that, thanks to its germ-killing effect irradiation can be used to preserve products. Irradiated foods arouse fears among many consumers, however.
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Constant cooling or freezing is indispensable in the seafood sector for maintaining the freshness and quality of temperature sensitive products on their way from their source to their final preparation. In addition to ice, which is probably the most common refrigerant, there are a lot of other cooling techniques that together enable products to be kept under optimal temperature conditions throughout the cold chain.
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Germany is well know for its Mittelstand, the small and medium-sized companies that specialise in niche products, often in engineering, that have made the Made in Germany label well known the world over. Less famous perhaps is the equivalent of the Mittelstand in Italy, where many small and typically family-owned firms have successfully carved niches for themselves in international markets.
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Fish quality is directly related to the temperature at which it is stored. Deterioration of the product starts immediately upon the death of the animal and from then on can not be reversed, but only arrested. Keeping product at the correct temperature is crucial to bringing the process of deterioration almost to a standstill, thereby maintaining quality.
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The fishing industry in Iceland has learned that adding ever more value to the resource is the only way to compensate for dwindling fish catches. This pursuit for greater value has led to the development of a vast and diverse ancillary industry on Iceland dedicated to developing and implementing methods that increase the returns from the raw material.
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Seac AB, the Swedish company specialised in renovated processing machinery for the fish industry, will launch the FPM-400, a new nobbing and filleting machine, at Seafood Processing Europe in April.
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Polylactic acid (PLA) is a compound derived from renewable resources such as corn starch, sugarcane, or tapioca that can be used for the manufacture of plastic packaging materials that have several advantages over plastics produced from oil. Among the companies that are using this material is Depron, a manufacturer of packaging materials based in the Netherlands.
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Skagerak Salmon, part of the Skagerak Group, specialises in salmon products both semi-processed, but also increasingly portions for the retail market and more value-added products. About 60% of the production is fresh fish while the rest is frozen.
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The market for plate freezers has always been fiercely competitive. Over the last years, however, with the entry on to the market of Asian companies that can produce equipment at lower costs than their European counterparts, the focus has moved to innovation, reliability, and customer service.
