With the capelin season in full swing, staff at Síldarvinnslan’s cold store in Neskaupstaður have been busy as 2585 tonnes of frozen herring and mackerel products have been loaded onto a freighter for export, in addition to containers being shipped out.
‘We needed to make space available for capelin now that production is running day and night. Shipping out these products have given us the space we needed, and it’s just as well,’ said cold store manager Stefán Einar Elmarsson.
‘Everything that went on board Silver Dania is sold, but initially is shipped to storage in the Faroe Islands. In addition, we are also shipping production in containers that are loaded onto a freighter in Reyðarfjörður. The next reefer isn’t expected until the end of February, so until then we’ll be shipping out frozen production in containers.’
There has been uninterrupted capelin production at the Neskaupstaður plant as Barði landed 800 tonnes at the weekend, followed by 900 tonnes landed by Beitir and 1000 tonnes taken in three casts by Polar Amaroq, while Polar Ammassak landed in the Faroes. After the weekend, Börkur docked with a further 1250 tonnes of capelin to join the discharging queue.
‘It looks good,’ said Börkur’s skipper Hjörvar Hjálmarsson.
‘There’s plenty of capelin to be seen that’s moving into shallow water. It seems likely that it’ll migrate pretty quickly towards the west.’
