On Thuesday the staff of Samherji’s prawn processing plant in Akureyri were told at a meeting that the company has decided to discontinue its prawn processing operations and close down the Akureyri factory.
In the wake of this decision, most of the staff, around 20 people, will be made redundant while the remainder will be moved to other jobs within the company. It was also made clear at the meeting that Samherji will do all within its power to help those who lose their jobs to find other work in Akureyri. A contract has been drawn up with Capacent Consulting to ensure that those requiring assistance in seeking employment elsewhere will receive the help they need. Discussions have also been under way with representatives from other food processing companies in Akureyri.
Long term difficulties in the prawn industry
The operation of prawn processing plants has been very difficult over the past few years and this decision has probably come as no surprise to those who have followed the situation in the news. Over the last 6 months, the operation of prawn plants in Iceland has been based to a large extent on imported raw materials; the amount of prawn caught around Iceland last year reaching an all-time low for the island’s 40 year history of prawn fishing. Prawn processing factories have been steadily decreasing in number over the past years, both in Iceland and other countries. The result being, that at this time there are only 4-5 plants still in operation in this country whereas there were over 30 a few years ago when this industry was at its peak.
Gestur Geirsson, managing director of Samherji’s on-shore operations, stated that it is very painful that such extreme measures had to be taken, but there was absolutely no alternative. “During the last few years changes were made to try to run the plant more economically and thus keep it operational. It was our hope that conditions would change for the better. This, however, has not come to pass; indeed the situation worsened considerably. The exaggerated strength of the Icelandic krona in the wake of the Central Bank’s totally unrealistic interest rate policy has resulted in an utterly impossible working environment for export industries and also in widespread mass redundancies as we have seen in recent months. ” said Gestur.
