The company, a major supplier of fish to the UK and Europe, has signed a deal with equipment specialists Skaginn to bring in an IQ freezing system at its factory in Akranes.

HB Grandi said on its company website that this will increase production from 800 HB Grandi kg to over 2,500 kg an hour. After months of cutbacks by Icelandic processors, the move will be welcomed by the industry in general.

Torfi Thorsteinsson, manager of the company’s groundfish production division said: "Boosting production means that overtime can be reduced, also increasing quality and giving us the possibility to produce larger quantities more easily if the need arises."

He added: " The increased production capacity is also an advantage for when there is a strong supply on the auctions or when the company’s fishing vessels have been fishing particularly well."

Mr Torfi Thorsteinsson said HB Grandi. which has one of Iceland's largest catch quotas and operates a fleet of five freezer trawlers and seven wetfish and pelagic vessels, would use the summer break in production to install the new production facilities and at the same time the opportunity would be taken to simplify the production process, as the new line was designed around production of lightly-salted, frozen fillets, with the new line scheduled to be taken into operation by the middle of August.

Injection salting of saithe and cod fillets began at HB Grandi’s Akranes factory yesterday, using a new set of equipment from Fomaco which Torfi Thorsteinsson says has great potential.

This equipment was installed at a cost of 20 million Icelandic kronas and the contract with Skaginn for the IQF line was worth 49 million kronas As well as improving production facilities, a general overhaul of the Akranes premises was in progress, with new windows being in stalled and the outside of the factory repainted.

HB Grandi operates groundfish processing plants in Reykjavík and Akranes. The company says great emphasis is placed on processing IQF fillets and fillet portions of redfish, cod and saithe. The company also produces fresh, chilled fillets that are air-lifted the same day to the European market.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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