However, the employees of the South African factory first have to learn to operate new equipment from TripleNine’s Esbjerg factory, which is now closed, so that they can produce fishmeal of a better quality than was possible with the equipment previously at the factory’s disposal.
Christian Bisgaard, TripleNine’s Production Manager has been in South Africa to sign the licence agreement.
– Until now, the South African factory has not had the technical equipment required to produce fishmeal of the quality we are used to in Denmark, explains Christian Bisgaard. – As part of the agreement, we have therefore sold some of our equipment from the Esbjerg factory to them. An evaporator and a dryer are currently being installed at the South African factory.
TripleNine has sent two employees to South African for three weeks to help install the machinery and show the employees how to operate it.
– Until now, the production has involved flame drying, but our equipment will allow the quality of the finished product to be optimised, says Christian Bisgaard.
TripleNine will be responsible for export sales
The South African fishmeal factory, which is owned by the company Pioneer Fishing, is located on the Atlantic coast 170 km north of Cape Town.
It normally receives approx. 80,000 tons of raw materials a year, from which it produces approx. 16,000 tons of fishmeal.
– Part of the exercise is to work together on optimising the use of the factory’s capacity in order to utilise the resources even better, says Christian Bisgaard.
He explains that until now the South African factory has only sold its fishmeal on the domestic market. Once the quality is improved, he expects it to be able to export the fishmeal to for instance China and in future, TripleNine will be responsible for this sales effort.
– In fact, South Africa can also export fishmeal to the EU, says Christian Bisgaard, – but that requires the production plant to be approved. Of course we expect that to be possible when the new machines are operating correctly.
An exciting task
Production Master Anders Gorritzen is one of the TripleNine employees who have been in South Africa to help get the TripleNine equipment correctly installed and he is going back to teach the factory’s employees to operate the new machines.
