The Nor-Fishing exhibition in Trondheim is over for this year, and the staff of innovative crab trap developer Proffteiner are going home satisfied after selling 130 traps in just the first two days of the event.
Proffteiner has attracted plenty of interest from fishermen at this year’s exhibition. The company set up its stand aiming to sell 500 traps, and they were well on their way to reaching that goal by the end of day two.
‘We’ve spoken to many potential customers and have a lead on one customer considering purchasing an additional hundred traps. We’ve also gathered a long list of contacts that we’ll be following up with in the weeks after the exhibition,’ commented Proffteiner’s managing director Lars Knudsen Pedersen on day two.
‘Even without hitting our target during these three days, it won’t be long before we get there. Nor-Fishing definitely gives us a valuable opportunity to showcase our products in person, which often leads to purchase decisions when customers can see and touch the products – and, importantly, conversating face-to-face with the person who developed them. It’s not always easy to have direct conversations with our customers in our day-to-day operations. We sell to fishermen who spend most of their time at sea and are often hard to reach. But here at Nor-Fishing, we can engage with them in a completely different way.’
The quick-emptying traps are designed to have as few as possible corners were crabs can get stuck. Larger than conventional traps and emptied using a boom, these are a significant labour- and back-saver for crews, plus they consistently show better catch rates than smaller traps.
According to Lars Knudsen Pedersen, the record is 146 crabs – 70kg – in a single trap.
‘These traps are designed for efficient catches, based on my own experience as a fisherman. The idea came to me after I injured my shoulder from years of heavy work with traps, which led me to develop a solution to make the job easier,’ explained Jim Sæternes, the innovator behind their unique crab traps.
‘I modified my boat with a barrier to avoid pulling the traps manually, which allowed for larger and more efficient designs. The result was a trap with multiple entry points at different levels, encouraging crabs to climb upward instead of blocking each other as the trap fills. This means the trap can hold more crabs than traditional designs.’
