Fish

FilleXia is a revolutionary filleting solution that brings never-before-seen automation to the tilapia industry. It delivers consistent, high-quality products at increased outputs while minimizing labor dependency.

Traditionally, tilapia processing has relied heavily on a large, highly skilled workforce to fillet the fish manually, hampering the industry from creating a strong market economy. Each year, an estimated 1-1.5 million tons of tilapia are filleted worldwide. With most processors filleting manually, the process is expensive, and yield and product quality are inconsistent. Compared to automated filleting, hand filleting has higher rates of error, raw material waste and risk of contamination, resulting in uneven filleting speeds and high processing costs.

Automating tilapia filleting with FilleXia solves these issues. By introducing FilleXia to the industry, we are enabling a significant increase in tonnage in the coming years. Additionally, this allows processors to reduce production costs and employee turnover, making tilapia more affordable and accessible to consumers. This way, the tilapia industry can create demand and build a strong market economy for the species in the future, bringing broad benefits to processors and the economy.

The newest additions to the FleXicut family expand Marel’s filleting capabilities, enabling the production of high-value end-products with minimum waste, increased throughput and reduced labor reliance. Together, these solutions are helping to keep fish processing profitable and sustainable into the future.

FleXicut Tres

The FleXicut Tres expands the portioning possibilities for large processors of whitefish and salmon through increased automation. The innovative solution utilizes every part of each fillet, prioritizing high-value portions and adapting cutting patterns to suit the latest market trends. This allows our customers to strengthen their competitive edge by boosting yield and profits.

With the FleXicut Tres, fish processors have the advantage of dual-cutting technologies with three water-jet cutters and twin blades, which provide the flexibility to create portions to a specific size, shape and predefined cutting pattern. Combining X-ray technology with advanced software, the FleXicut Tres uses data to precisely portion fillets of all sizes, keeping raw material waste to an absolute minimum.

FleXicut Valka

The acquisition of Valka accelerated the innovation roadmap for Marel and the product launch of the FleXicut Valka alongside the FleXicut Tres. The FleXicut Valka combines intelligent software and advanced robotics to provide extremely flexible and precise portioning of skin-on or skinless salmon and whitefish.

Utilizing 3D vision, high-definition X-ray technology and dynamic robotic water-jet cutters, the FleXicut Valka debones and portions fillets at any angle or curved pattern.

The Salmon Tail Cutter MS 2705.30 is a complementary solution that eliminates manual tail cutting, decreases labor reliance and improves raw material utilization. Designed to be a part of a filleting line between the PaceInfeeder MS 2725 and the Filleting Machine MS 2730, the Salmon Tail Cutter increases line stability and efficiency, resulting in higher quality fillets and a lower risk of downgrades.

The MSC 55 MA is the latest multi-angle slicer in the Marel range of single-lane slicers for raw and fresh smoked salmon and similar species. Able to slice a wide variety of products, it is ideal for producers of fresh and smoked products looking for maximum flexibility.

Enhanced remote support and valuable data collection increase the uptime of fish processing lines. In 2022, we added I-Slice 3400 to the family of solutions with SmartBase included as standard. Data is the key to improved service for our customers. SmartBase is a cloud-based software solution that shares real-time data about machine health and performance with users and service operators on any device.

Grading frozen fish products into multiple product lines for bulk containers or boxes, the IQF Portion Grader delivers high-speed automation and accuracy. As an integral solution in a processing line that produces fish portions, the multi-lane grader is available with two or four lanes, each lane providing accurate grading with a maximum throughput of 100 pieces per minute per lane. This level of automation and technology minimizes giveaway, reduces the need for labor and increases throughput.

Marel and globally recognized seafood producer Lerøy Seafood Group have partnered for over 20 years, driven by a shared goal to increase sustainability in fish processing. In 2022, Lerøy finalized its purchase of a new Marel solution for weighing, grading and packing whole salmon and salmon fillets for the Austevoll facility in Norway.

Installation of the new solution commenced in January 2023, replacing the current Marel system. The new system will provide increased capacity, greater automation, gentler fish handling and more advanced grading and sorting options to meet the needs of Lerøy’s international market base.

Icelandic fish processor Brim is one of the world’s most advanced whitefish processing plants. In 2022, the company continued its journey toward a smarter, more sustainable line by adding the newly launched FleXicut Tres, increasing automation and portioning flexibility.

Before incorporating the FleXicut Tres, Brim portioned large fillets with the two water-jets of the standard FleXicut, then manually cut them into smaller loin pieces. Manual portioning led to a high percentage of off-cuts and fewer on-spec products.

The third water-jet nozzle of the FleXicut Tres enables Brim to split large fillet loins lengthwise, producing consistently on-spec, natural-looking portions with accuracy and efficiency. This improves raw material utilization and adds value to large whitefish portioning, while also aligning with the consumer trend for whitefish portions with a natural loin look.

We examine the entire lifespan of our solutions, recognizing that even small changes can significantly improve the utilization of valuable resources. For example, a simple design adjustment to the nozzle of the water-jet cutters for our salmon pin bone remover has significantly reduced its water consumption by 20% while maintaining its exceptional accuracy. Water is a precious commodity, and we are constantly exploring ways to use it more efficiently.

Optimal equipment performance can also play a critical role in decreasing energy consumption by as much as 20-40%. SmartBase monitors machine performance levels, collecting data in real time to enable adjustments that keep lines running optimally and lengthen the equipment’s overall lifespan. As SmartBase stores machine data securely in the cloud, service teams can be given access to accurate, up-to-date information remotely, enabling proactive maintenance. This helps to prevent unplanned stoppages, minimize parts replacement and avoid costly and carbon-heavy fly-in fly-out repairs.

As consumer and legislative demand for traceable and transparent products grows, Marel’s integrated software solutions help fish processors tackle the ever-increasing need for specificity. For instance, our labeling software makes it easy to create detailed labels that meet consumer and regulation requirements by including real-time, product-specific data. These flexible labeling solutions not only address the demand for food transparency and traceability but also help simplify and minimize the impact of recalls in the event that products are deemed unsafe.

Advancing automation and technology within fish processing helps improve food safety. Working with our customers, we develop benchmark solutions such as the SensorX, which boosts the detection rate of bones and hard contaminants. This provides consumers with reliably high-quality end-products and helps processors meet the stringent demands of export markets.

In addition to supporting food safety, we prioritize workplace health and safety by streamlining equipment design to make it safer for operators and easier to clean.

The pandemic drove a shift in consumer behavior as consumers learned to prepare seafood at home, leading to a rise in sales of premium species such as shrimp and salmon. However, market dynamics are shifting back as pandemic restrictions subside. The reopening of foodservice has boosted sales and contributed to a rapidly strengthening market.

Despite its negative impacts, the pandemic fueled various innovations in delivery, sales, marketing and products, which look set to endure in the long term. For example, producers introduced new types of convenience products and meal kits as consumers focused on home cooking.

As consumers become more health conscious and environmentally aware, their dietary habits are shifting toward incorporating more seafood as a protein source. This increased demand for seafood, including differentiated and value-added seafood products, is expected to continue driving industry growth.

The millennial population is driving this growth with their demand for alternatives to meat due to a combination of dietary and sustainability concerns. Meanwhile, the aging baby boomer population is seeking greater diversity in their protein sources, mainly for health reasons.

Prices have risen sharply for many seafood products as supply growth for many key species has failed to keep pace with the market recovery rate. Higher input costs for seafood supply chains, including raw material, feed, labor, energy and freight pressure production, are pushing producers to increase automation, efficiency and yield, and to create more value-added products from ever more expensive raw materials.

The need for greater automation and digitalization in fish processing is especially accelerating with ever-growing labor scarcity, a global issue that is not going away soon.

The ongoing transition to more sustainable production will accompany these trends. Increased automation reduces the number of human contact points along the processing line, minimizing contamination risks and enhancing line efficiency.

Marel is supporting this transition by developing solutions that automate manual processes, ensure food safety, reduce CO2 footprint, eliminate food waste by increasing yield and ensure source-to-shelf traceability. An additional benefit of faster throughput is a decrease in food waste by extending the supermarket shelf life of end-products.

Global production of farmed salmon either grew slightly in 2022 or not at all, depending on sources. As before, Atlantic salmon accounts for the majority of production by species at 93%.

The Groundfish Forum expects production to pick up in 2023, forecasting a 2.1% growth, while RaboResearch forecasts even higher growth or 3.9%. Norway’s production is expected to grow by 2.0%, while no growth is forecast for Chile in 2023. Despite higher forecasted growth for other producers, Norway’s share is expected to stay close to half of the global production at 47%.

Global production of tilapia is estimated to have grown by 4.3% in 2022, while pangasius is estimated to have grown by 3.1%. The forecast for 2023 projects a 4.8% growth in the production of tilapia and 2.1% for pangasius. The production of both tilapia and pangasius fell in 2020. While tilapia was relatively quick to recover, pangasius has still not reached its peak from 2019, resulting in a negative five-year compounded annual growth rate.

Asia continues to dominate the tilapia market with close to 70% of the production, with China and Indonesia accounting for twothirds of that. Africa accounts for roughly a fifth, spearheaded by Egypt, while the Americas supply the remaining 10%. Vietnam continues to supply roughly half of pangasius production, followed by India with 22%, while the world’s third largest producer, Indonesia, is the fastest growing producer.

It is estimated that the global production of Atlantic cod decreased by 6.4% in 2022 while the production of Pacific cod is believed to have increased by 9.1%, amounting to a net decrease of 2.8%. Production is projected to decrease further in 2023, mostly due to diminishing catch of Atlantic cod.

The top three producing countries—Russia, Norway and Iceland—are all expected to lose ground in 2023 while other producers may gain some share. Norway’s production is expected to shrink the most.