In support of smarter processing: Marel on the seafood conference circuit

In 2018, Marel participated in the North Atlantic Seafood Forum in Norway, the Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo in Russia, and the China Salmon Summit, to name a few. Gatherings such as these offer the chance to share processing knowledge and expertise with researchers, academics, investors and both national and international organizations.

Marel also maintains a strong presence at international seafood expositions, with an emphasis on communicating how advances in specific Marel processing technology and equipment can boost fish processing results.

Conferences, on the other hand, offer the luxury of letting us explore wider seafood trends, futuristic processing possibilities, cross-industry learning points and so on, with a broader group of professionals and authorities.

Smarter processing at the North Atlantic seafood forum

Sigurdur Ólason, Managing Director of Marel Fish, addressed the 13th North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF) Aquaculture and Salmon Seminar in Bergen, Norway, 7 March 2018. He spoke about how advances in software are contributing greatly to automation in food processing, and factories are becoming smarter as software becomes an even bigger part of the production process.

“Interconnected software solutions now control and monitor the whole journey of fish from the sea to the supermarket,” Ólason said. “Furthermore, we are entering the next industrial revolution as Big Data and deep-learning become an integral part of state-of-the-art, hi-tech production systems.”

Vikings at the global fishery forum and Seafood expo

Ólason spoke again about how new technologies and innovations are impacting the seafood industry at the Global Fishery Forum in St. Petersburg, 15 September, where he participated in the round table discussion: ‘Iceland is not only about eruptions: Vikings talk about innovative technologies in shipbuilding and fish processing’.

At the salmon industry development forum

If all the Marel filleting machines installed around the world were running at the same time, they would process around 700,000 salmon per hour.

This was one of the fun facts that came up during a presentation by Christian Bols, Business Manager for Marel Salmon, when he addressed the inaugural Salmon Industry Development Forum in Beijing, 29 August 2018, and spoke about future trends in the global salmon processing industry.

International experts at our showhows

This year, we also brought the experts to our customers, with an impressive line-up of speakers at our showhows. The showhows sit somewhere in between expos and conferences, bringing processors together from around the world to see demonstrations of equipment and software in a hands-on environment, to hear guest speakers, to attend seminars, and to meet industry colleagues.

At the Salmon ShowHow, 7 February, Trond Davidsen, President of the International Salmon Farmers Association, discussed current trends and challenges of salmon farming and shared his expectations of the future of the industry.

Grant Rosewarne, CEO and Managing Director of New Zealand King Salmon, also spoke at the event, highlighting the uniqueness of the New Zealand salmon industry compared to the global salmon market.

At the Whitefish ShowHow, 26 September, Dag Sletmo, Senior Vice President and Seafood Analyst at Norway's leading financial group DNB, and Pétur Hafsteinn Pálsson, CEO of Icelandic fish company Vísir hf, emphasized the accelerating impact of digitalization on fish processing.

Innova food processing software user conferences

The showhows always include demonstrations of how Marel’s Innova Food Processing Software improves processing performance and production control, but we also hold separate Innova user conferences in various locations.

These conferences are designed to bring fish processors together and help them realize the full potential of the software, with specialists providing focused training and assistance throughout each event.

A 2018 Innova Food Processing Software user conference in Tromsø, Norway, for example, targeted whitefish processors in particular. Using a mix of theory and a practical demonstration, there was an emphasis on helping participants use different Innova modules to optimize various Marel equipment.

Other topics during the conference included traceability and how to ensure Innova receives all the right data to be able to trace products from raw materials to final products.