Icelandic company Skaginn 3X has signed a contract to supply a high-tech processing facility to a company on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. It will include advanced freezing technology and automated plate freezer systems for both filleted and wholefrozen fish, as well as IQF capacity. The factory is designed so that further expansion at a later date is possible.
The factory has been ordered by the VI Lenin Fishing Collective Farm, at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and it will have the capacity to grade, pack and freeze Alaska pollock, Pacific cod, wild salmon, squid and various pelagic species.
The contract was signed at a formal event held at the Icelandic embassy in Moscow, where the VI Lenin Fishing Collective Farm’s chairman Sergey Tarusov said that they are proud to be able to implement Icelandic technology in the new factory.
‘The combination of seafood traditions from Russia’s Far East and Icelandic processing technology enables increased value creation from the resources,’ he stated.
The 500-tonne/day processing facility will include refrigeration supplied by another Icelandic company, Kælismiðjan Frost, who are contracted to supply an installation that meets the latest international standards in energy efficiency. Both Skaginn 3X and Frost are represented on the Russian market by Knarr Rus.
According to Skaginn 3X’s managing director, this contract is a key landmark for both companies – although the celebrations are being held over until the factory is operational at the end of 2019 or early 2020. He said that in spite of the 12-hour time difference, there is a shared passion for seafood between all the companies involved.
‘For us it is very important to contribute to improved utilisation of fish, our ability to apply our total system integration approach is a key to making this happen. This is in fact similar to the development that has taken place in Iceland where we strive to maximise the value of every fish,’ Ingólfur Árnason said, while sales and marketing head Jón Birgir Gunnarsson added that this represents another opportunity to prove their abilities in Russia.
‘We are already in the middle of another large project for Gidrostroy, so this means we are really putting our flag down firmly in Russia Far East,’ he said.
Knarr Rus has been pivotal in establishing the group of Icelandic companies on the Russian market, providing a bridge across time zones, languages and cultures.
According to Frost’s sales director Guðmundur Hannesson, Knarr Rus has already proved its value.
‘A project of this scale would have been impossible without their involvement,’ he said.
Long tradition, modern methods
The VI Lenin Fishing Collective Farm goes back to 1929 when three fishing stations were established on the shores of Avacha Bay. Since then, the company has weathered economic and political change and has grown to become the largest of its kind, while maintaining both its name and strong traditions that are combined with rational management policies geared to increasing production capacity.
Today, the VI Lenin Fishing Collective Farm sees itself as an enterprise based on honourable traditions of collective endeavour and modern management and production technologies, with its products available on international markets as it contributes to the prosperity and development of the fishing industry of Kamchatka and Russia.
