Grading is a critical stage in processing, and with automation, processors can maximize the value of every fish

Automation Revolutionizes Fish Processing: Working For or Against Your Business?

Smart Grading Transforms Operational Efficiency and Profitability in the Fisheries Industry

Garðabær – In a global fishing sector facing increasing pressure for consistent quality, rising labor costs, and tightening profit margins, the transition from manual to automated grading in fish processing has become an unavoidable strategic shift. For businesses looking to maintain competitiveness, the question is no longer if to implement automation, but how quickly they can adopt solutions that deliver tangible results.

Manual fish grading, once the backbone of operations, has become a significant bottleneck in today's processing lines. The introduction of automation into these lines promises to eliminate these limitations, optimizing yield, enhancing quality control, and boosting operational efficiency.

The True Financial Impact of Grading

Relying on manual weighing and grading puts considerable strain on already tight margins and limits growth in multiple ways. Key challenges include:

• High Labor Costs and Scarcity: Requires a large number of staff, difficult to find in today's labor-scarce market.
• Fluctuating Operational Costs: Variable due to shifts in wages and demand.
• Inconsistencies and Errors: Prone to inaccuracies in size and weight categorization, as well as speed. Incorrect sizing leads to rework, consumes additional labor hours, and affects customer transactions and relationships due to inaccurate orders.
• Quality and Hygiene Risks: Manual handling and slower throughput can lead to temperature variations that compromise product quality, resulting in the loss of valuable raw material and the waste of energy and water.
• Compliance Challenges: Inconsistencies and manual record-keeping complicate meeting EU requirements for common market standards.

In contrast, automated grading offers:

• Superior Accuracy: Grades every fish to exact specifications, ensuring precise order fulfillment with minimal giveaway.
• Traceability and Compliance: Records and stores specific data on each fish and batch, providing the documentation and consistency required to meet regulations.
• Predictable Costs: Improves financial planning and margin protection.
• Hygiene and Food Safety: Maximizes and simplifies cleaning and food safety through hygienic design.
• Increased Speed and Efficiency: Boosts production speed and eliminates bottlenecks, keeping the chain flowing.
• Improved Product Quality: Reduces the risk of damage caused by manual handling.

Harmonizing Automation and Tradition: Pacific TUM Cold Storage Success Story

The transition from manual to automated grading represents a strategic shift that not only unlocks new levels of operational excellence but also involves equipment upgrades. Pacific TUM Cold Storage in Thailand experienced immediate benefits upon introducing a Whole Fish Grader into their production line. "After implementing Marel's grader, we have been able to reduce labor costs. In return, we have gained improved accuracy in fish size categorization and weight measurement," commented Inthuon Phuttha, Customer Service Supervisor, Pacific TUM Cold Storage.

In figures, this allowed Pacific TUM to reduce the number of workers grading each incoming truck from ten to three. Far from eliminating jobs, automation elevates them. By removing repetitive grading tasks, skilled workers can focus on higher-value activities like quality assurance and process optimization, which improves job satisfaction and productivity.

Adapting Technology to Market Needs

Automated grading equipment offers accurate and fast grading of incoming product batches and has an immediate positive effect on an entire process line, regardless of existing automation levels, fish species, or end product goals. Whatever combination of primary, secondary, and value-added processing a facility has, accurate, efficient grading sets every operation up for consistent end-products.

While EU common marketing standards for size, packaging, labeling, traceability, and hygiene make compliance requirements uniform across Europe, each country has specific nuances. Processors in Southern Europe with strong local markets face the challenge of traditional customer perception that "handcrafted" equals authentic. However, small steps like introducing automation into grading can open market opportunities by reliably meeting standards and compliance without losing the perception of traditional quality that regional markets desire.

Maximizing the value of every fish, each processor has a specific set of needs when it comes to grading. Whether fresh, frozen, whole fish, or fillet, the required machine capability will change. Fish species and seasonal changes equate to weight and size variability. Supplier catch methods affect grading capacity needs. Business size dictates the quantity of fish received and dispatched. Market direction determines secondary and value-added processing needs.

With so many variables, it is clear that one grader does not suit all operations. This is where strategic equipment selection becomes crucial for maximizing return on investment. Companies like JBT Marel offer a comprehensive range of graders designed to meet diverse business needs and fish sizes, from 10 grams to 20 kilograms, emphasizing hygienic design, seamless integration, flexibility, and scalability.

Driving Sustainable Growth

As cost and compliance pressures increase due to growing populations, environmental challenges, and rising demand for seafood, processors need solutions that effectively balance these pressures. Grading is a critical stage in processing, and with automation, processors can maximize the value of every fish while meeting customer expectations and compliance requirements.

As automation becomes more standard in fish processing, those that adopt the technology now position themselves to capture the full benefits of increased yield and operational efficiency that define success in today's and tomorrow's market. Grading is the logical place to start, with a wide range of solutions offering various automation levels, sizes, and grading parameters to match needs, as well as solutions that can be installed with minimal disruption to production.

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