Norwegian company Stranda Prolog has secured a breakthrough contract to supply a fish handling system for Chilean company Australis Mar, one of the largest salmon produces in South America.
Worth close to NoK100 million, the contract is for Australis Mar’s new factory at Puerto Natales in the far south of Chile, which is expected to be fully operational at the end of next year.
Stranda Prolog’s contribution to the Puerto Natales factory is a pumping system to deliver fish to the factory, a HeliXir Ultrafresh pre-conditioning tank, a bleeding facility with HeliX buffer storage, several large HeliX Super cooling tanks, and a central vacuum system, as well as a large-capacity water and energy saving system. The entire array of equipment is controlled with a StraQS management system.
‘It’s a breakthrough for our technology,’ said Stranda Prolog’s CEO Klaus Hoseth.
‘For decades, we have been focusing on systems for better fish welfare, better raw material quality and more environmentally friendly production. Australis Mar appreciates our commitment and focus. This means that we were able to establish a positive dialogue as we got deeper into the project.’
He added that Australis Mar has a strong green focus, with a keen interest in water economy, energy saving and fish welfare, and the factory is set to become a world leader in a number of areas. Capacity will be on the same level as the largest and latest processing plants in Norway.
Stranda Prolog moved from Averøy to Kristiansund in 2015, when the company had a workforce of 23 – and it is expected to have more than a hundred staff by the end of this year as the Puerto Natales project takes shape.
All of the equipment will be constructed at the company’s Kristiansund facility and shipped via the freight terminal at Høgset in three shipments.
‘These are large shipments,’ Klaus Hoseth said. ‘The six HeliX tanks are each the size of a house, plus there will be 30 to 40 containers of other equipment to be shipped to Chile.’
