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BREMEN, Germany -- Undercurrent News was reporting live from Bremen in Germany for Fish International 2020.
Taking place from Feb. 9-11, the show saw over 300 exhibitors from 26 nations present their products in the arenas of fish production and processing, fresh fish, and "delicacies", according to organizers.
Keep checking back below for the latest updates.
Though the recent lack of European capelin supplies has done little to affect fishmeal and oil prices, it has had a slightly more niche knock-on impact, Scandic Pelagic boss Johannes Palsson told Undercurrent News.
“For sandeel the quota was very low, so we lacked raw materials for the fishmeal and oil business,” he said of 2019. “But at the same time prices weren’t increased by that or by the lack of capelin quotas. There wasn’t a lift in prices, because it’s such a globally produced and traded thing.”
However, the lack of capelin quotas in Iceland and the Barents Sea in 2019 did mean that Asia looked to herring roe instead of capelin roe, he noted. “And it’s looking like that might be the case again this year, with no capelin in Norway and bad news so far in Iceland regarding capelin availability.” He confirmed the lack of capelin is pushing the price of herring roe upwards, though declined to say to what extent.
Iceland is currently in the process of conducting capelin surveys, with so far too little detected in its waters to think of setting a quota.
Last year Icelandic fishing firm Sildarvinnslan (SVN) noted Japanese buyers had traveled to the country in the hopes of securing deals for capelin exports.
“Last year, Japanese companies bought 20,000 [metric tons] of capelin from Iceland, and the Japanese are the main buyers of capelin roe,” said SVN.
Meanwhile, Palsson said 2019 had been a little tricky for Scandic because of reduced quota allocations for sandeel and sprat in the North Sea, compared to earlier years and expectations based on the information from the surveys.
“The stock assessment method, the science, changed for 2019 and recommended a [total allowable catch] for sprat of a little over 100,000t. Using the old method it would have been more than 400,000t. So that hurt,” he said.
“On the other hand, in herring it was a good year for volumes.”
Dutch food company Haasnoot specializes in herring ‘matjes’, a product traditionally popular in the Netherlands and Germany.
Export specialist Kees Haasnoot told Undercurrent News that if the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate on Atlanto-Scandian herring is lost next year, it could be an issue for these key markets.
“Retailers of course prefer MSC, while for foodservice it is a little less important,” he said. “Germany it certainly could be an issue, the retailers here do ask for MSC.”
“But my own opinion, I think that shops do not want to lose a product, and if one supermarket has it and the others don’t? That won’t happen, they won’t let it.”
He also noted matjes was growing in popularity in Baltic states such as Poland, Lithuania, and others. There, MSC is not well-known.
“Then for mackerel, where the MSC certificate is not in place, there are other markets for the processors. Japan wants mackerel, and I do not think they really know of MSC there.”
Irish processor Keohane Seafoods is looking to expand its export markets, a representative of the firm told Undercurrent News.
The firm supplies a variety of species to both retail and foodservice, and has invested over the years in automated portioning and packing lines intended to meet modern demands for convenience products and ‘ready-to-cook’ meal options.
In 2018 Keohane also opened its own smokehouse, doing salmon, trout and coley (saithe) among other species. Across all product lines it produces some 150 metric tons of salmon a week, she said.
“The UK and Ireland are our main markets, but we do some sales to Germany, France, Italy now,” she said. “This is our first time at one of the more regional trade shows, we’re just looking to expand our market in Germany really.”
The fish counters in German retailers are a stable, if not growing, business, Sigmundur Andresson of importer Icefresh told Undercurrent News.
The firm, which is owned by Iceland’s Samherji, imports Norwegian and Icelandic whitefish and salmon for filleting, much of which is sold to cash-and-carry and retail customers, he said.
While fish counters are on the decline in parts of Europe, in Germany they remain a tradition, at least in some stores. “In other countries you’re starting to get a mix, the wetfish alongside packs on the counters. But in Germany you see Aldi and Lidl just do packed fish, while Edeka just has fish counters.”
Raw material prices are high on many species at the moment, he noted, and it can be tricky to pass these on to customers. “It helps us that we have a variety of suppliers, in Norway and Iceland.”
In recent years it has invested to automate its plant too, with water-cutting lines among other innovations.
Newly established Lithuanian processor Nordian is showing its value-added seafood range at Fish International, apparently created using a state-of-the-art freezing technology.
Established in 2018, Nordian’s factory in Taurage can handle around 25,000 metric tons of products per year. It employs 250, though the processing lines are as automated as possible using the most modern equipment, said sales manager Andrius Kazemekaitis.
Specializing in salmon, Nordian also produces whitefish, various types of shrimp, and more.
“Vacuum-packed and MAP [modified atmosphere packaged] is the future, certainly in seafood,” said Kazemekaitis. The firm’s flatskin, skinpack and MAP trays are highly protective and also environmentally friendly, he added.
While it is set up to provide a flexible range of solutions, from branded to private-label, fresh and frozen, Nordian is excited about its freezing technology, which utilizes “acoustic extra freezing”.
“Fish frozen using this technology maintains its initial moisture content and taste after defrosting, because the structure of the food cells is not damaged during the feezing process,” said Kazemekaitis.
“In some aspects it even surpasses the quality of refreshed fish.”
Nordian’s seafood is being sold across Europe already, in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and other countries.
As well as Royal Greenland’s new coldwater shrimp facility (see the blog post below), the firm also owns a frozen fish processing site in the German port of Cuxhaven.
Here it has begun processing frozen “Nutaaq”-branded cod; receiving raw material from its Maniitsoq plant in Greenland, which is kept alive in holding pens before slaughter.
The German site is turning the cod — which the firm touts as being “fresher than fresh”, given it is frozen just two hours after slaughter — into fillets and, more recently, head-and-gutted cuts. These are marketed as “chilled selection”, with an emphasis on quality and freshness.
“These products have taken off with a big UK pub chain, they really like it as it is like it is fresh,” said a Royal Greenland spokesperson based in Germany. “They would take more of it if they could.”
He revealed the company is in talks to supply “chilled selection” products to French and German customers also.
Royal Greenland’s new shrimp processing facility in the port of Cuxhaven, Germany, is now fully operational, a spokesperson with the firm told Undercurrent News.
It announced last year it would close its last processing plant in Aalborg, Denmark and move the production and packing of coldwater shrimp down to Germany.
The building in Cuxhaven is very close to existing Royal Greenland facilities for lumpfish roe and deep-frozen fish production. The move inevitably meant job losses in Aalborg, but the firm has given employees the chance to move to Germany, and has also said it is very easy to get a new job back in their hometown.
Conversely, the move has created 50 jobs in Cuxhaven. Six shrimp processing lines were moved down to refurbished premises in Cuxhaven, and some “new elements” were added to the setup. Frozen cooked and peeled coldwater shrimp are defrosted and packed in brine for foodservice in Germany and other nearby markets.
Insula is testing the Glyngore brand – famous for shelf stable tuna and herring, and acquired in July of last year – across its fresh fish range, marketing chief with Amanda Seafoods, Brian Gert, told Undercurrent News.
Glyngore was acquired by Insula-owned Amanda, from Orkla Foods Denmark. The acquisitive group also owns canned pelagic producer Bornholms, which it bought in May 2019.
“Bornholms and Amanda are really known as classic shelf-stable brands,” said Gert.
“Glyngore we think is well-known enough, and flexible enough, to be used across our fresh, chilled fish, including salmon and whitefish.”
“2020 I think is a chance to consolidate the companies, work out how to use the different brands,” he said, of Insula’s plans. “If you look in the different sections of retailers now, we want our different brands to be seen across each part, and not competing with each other.”
In the image above you can see Glyngore-branded herring products (bottom shelf), along with newer smoked salmon and fillet items.
Urk, Netherlands-based processor Visscher Seafood has launched a new, high-end salmon brand it calls “VARLAKS”.
The fish is farmed exclusively for the company by five family-owned operations in the far north of Norway, to a standard which is essentially organic (though isn’t certified as such), sales manager Kevin de Boer told Undercurrent News.
That means it is farmed at low densities, without antibiotics or additives. The farmers use lumpsuckers only to control sea lice.
“It occupies a good space in the market actually, more high-end than the ‘standard’ salmon products, but not as expensive as something certified as organic,” said de Boer.
Sales have been small and exploratory so far, but have mainly been fresh, he said. Frozen is also available, and the company is looking at cold-smoked products too.
The target market is the US, he said, though “of course we will sell in Europe, and anywhere there is demand”. “We’ve already sold a little to Asia as well.”
While it may be a “boutique” operation, this does not mean there are not significant-enough volumes to fulfill large orders, he added.
German importer All-Fish Handelsgesellschaft is eyeing the opportunities which Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification could provide for its Namibian cape hake.
All-fish – which recently acquired fellow German distributor Intercont Grosshandels – owns roughly 20,000 metric tons of hake quota with its Namibian partner, Seawork Fish Processors.
Last year Seawork CEO Peter Pahl told Undercurrent News he hoped the MSC certification might arrive early in 2020, though All-Fish’s Jan-Hinnerk Schneur said this would now, hopefully, be some point this year.
The remaining barrier to certification is the biomass assessment, which must be conducted in collaboration with South African researchers, and which the industry is still waiting upon.
All-Fish is focused on the foodservice sector, and Schneur said he sees opportunities in the Scandinavian market for certified hake.
“There are some importers there that will only take MSC seafood,” he said. While Pahl – whose Seawork exports a large quantity of its hake landings directly – said he saw interest from northern European retail, Schneur said All-Fish would not look to sell to supermarkets.
“Our strategy is foodservice. We like to have lots of smaller clients, to spread any risks. Our largest customer is under 5% of our revenues.”
German frozen foods company Frosta Aktiengesellschaft has launched a vegan “fish alternative” at Fish International.
“Seeing the potential for limited fish availability in the future, and given our specialization as a company which works with vegetables as well as fish, we thought it made sense to create this product,” a spokesperson for the firm told Undercurrent News.
The new products will carry the Fisch vom Feld, or “Fish from the Field” brand. The first sales will go out in May, after a long period of development, she said.
“Creating it was a little tricky, because we wanted to use the smallest numbers of additives possible. If you look at some of the meat alternatives, they use additives to recreate taste, mouthfeel, and so on. We wanted to use as few as possible.”
The company also decided against using soy products, due to the question marks over its sustainability, she said.
Frosta will begin sales of three different product types to the foodservice sector.
The marketing material — see image to the left — declares “Harvested — not Caught!”
Mowi is showing off some of its new, branded products at Fish International, though a representative of the firm stressed to Undercurrent News the launch hasn’t come yet.
“We’re in this market, with our ‘normal products’, but we haven’t launched the brand here yet. It’s in our plans, but the announcement will be made by the company at some point.”
Since announcing the rebrand, the MOWI brand has been launched in Poland and France, while goods sold in China via Alibaba Group, JD.com and others also carry the MOWI mark.
The owner of Turkish trout farmer Kuzuoglu Group, Hasan Kuzuoglu, is excited about the growing potential for “salmon trout” around the world, he told Undercurrent News.
His company has been in “regular”, pan-sized trout since the 1980s, but he took it into salmon trout — a much larger fish, raised both in the ocean and in lakes during the warmer season — in 2011.
“This is my first time at a show in Germany,” he said. “Russia and Japan are our main markets; Russia could take everything we grew, but we like to spread the risk a little.”
From talks just before Fish International he was able to sell one truckload of salmon trout in Germany and one in the Netherlands, he said. “Europe is exciting, I have a good feeling about it.”
Then, China can’t be ignored, he added.
“China is importing more and more [Atlantic] salmon. But our product is actually better for sashimi, and sells at something like €2 [per kilogram] less. I can see us taking a nice role in China, in Europe too.”
The company currently produces half of Turkey’s total 30,000t of salmon trout, and harvests will be up this year, he said. “In January [2020] we harvested almost 1,000t — more than last year — and that’s in our slow period.”
Mackerel products containing fish landed before the March 2, 2019 suspension of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate are still on German retail shelves, a spokesperson for the MSC told Undercurrent News.
It seems plentiful stocks of certified canned or packed mackerel products were built up while they were available, as the German market — for which mackerel is not such a key product — is still ticking over.
The MSC spokesperson noted that when the MSC certificate was suspended in 2012, major retailer Lidl delisted mackerel rather than undercut its sustainability policy.
As for herring — which Undercurrent just reported is at risk of losing its MSC certificate at the end of 2020 — the German market is more important. Matjes — marinated herring, popular in Germany, Poland and parts of the Netherlands — is a largely MSC-certified product.
It remains to be seen what the industry will — or can — do, given the conditions which need to be closed on the MSC certificate are quite political in nature. Read more on that here.
Turkish aquaculture firm Gumusdoga Seafood is nearing the first harvests of its new “salmon trout”, export specialist Oguz Kileci told Undercurrent News.
The company will this year be producing around 5,000 metric tons of the fish, which is the same species as its “regular”, inland-raised trout, but moved to sea. As a result it will be harvested at 3-3.5 kilograms, rather than the pan-sized 300g of its normal trout products.
“We have established partners in Europe for our trout,” said Kileci. “Our products are in most of the retailers in Germany, for example, our hot-smoked trout. So we’re here to have discussions with those suppliers about our salmon trout.”
Hence the company’s focus on its new product on its stand — see the image below.
He sees Russia, Japan, and North America as other promising markets for the new harvests. “We sell our seabass and seabream to Russia now, but we hope we can take it to a new level with the salmon trout.” Gumusdoga will look to break the other markets for the first time with the new harvests.
Major European foodservice wholesaler TransGourmet markets some 2,500 seafood products, with over a hundred new items each year, managing director Ralf Forner told Undercurrent News.
Bringing in around 300 metric tons of farmed salmon from Iceland’s Arnarlax, it is an important customer of the Westfjords-based aquaculture firm.
“In May we are taking a group of our customers to Iceland to see the farmed salmon, and Arctic char too,” said Forner. “We try to tell the story, to improve the reputation of Iceland’s salmon compared with more commodity products. We call it ’boutique farming’, because it’s much smaller.”
TransGourmet sells Icelandic salmon on a par, in terms of “ranking”, with Irish and Scottish produce, he said; above the more “commodity” product Norwegian, which in turn is above Chilean. The company operates in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
He noted that in these countries, as elsewhere, there is a growing trend for “flexitarianism” and meat alternatives.
“This year we are selling a new salmon soup with the Icelandic salmon; a ‘laks bolognese’ too.”
TransGourmet has also sought to capitalize on the popularity of Finnish-style “flamed salmon” this year — see left.
“The logistics to importing the product from Finland are no good for us, so we have copied their idea, but created our own machine for it. It means we can sell fresh flamed salmon, just one day old.”
At this year’s Fish International several new species and products are expected to be given a go in a bid to find a willing German market reception, according to the event’s organizers.
Japanese flounder, or hirame, for example – which a Turkish breeder is presenting for the first time — is practically still unknown in Germany, they said.
“In Asia it is highly valued for sushi, but according to the grower it also tastes great when grilled,” according to Fish International project manager Sabine Wedell.
Black sea salmon trout and certified tilapia are also among interesting new farmed products.
In addition, the strong demand for convenience products has brought items such as shrimp croissants and dim sum shrimp to the trade fair.
Also at the show, the Aquaculture Welfare Standards Initiative is scheduled to meet with German market representatives to work on recommendations for welfare-compliant fish farming, organizers said.
Project coordinator Stefan-Andreas Johnigk believes the results of this meeting will carry some weight; it will represent “two-thirds of the local food retailers, who do not only operate in Germany”, he said.
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BREMEN, Germany -- Undercurrent News was reporting live from Bremen in Germany for Fish International 2020 [...]
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