Hans J Marter

22 April, 2009

UP TO seventy new jobs are being created in Shetland as a massive extension to an existing salmon processing plant becomes operational.

Norwegian owned Grieg Seafood Hjaltland is today (Wednesday) celebrating the completion of the £4.2 million building project, which will allow the company to produce up to 12,000 kilos of smoked and marinated salmon a day.

A new brand, WildWaters, will appear on the shelves of one leading supermarket across Scotland as of next week.

Managers at Shetland’s largest salmon company are confident that the number of employees will rise from between 120 and 160 at the moment to between 190 and 230, depending on the time of year.

Managing director Michael Stark said an investment of this size made both economic and environmental sense.

"We have to look forward and we believe the best way of doing that is by addressing the consumer with a product that comes directly from the isles,” Mr Stark said.

"We would like to offer to the consumer full traceability and we can do that. In addition, we are the only company in Europe who can commence value adding on day one of the processing.”

Mr Stark explained that by processing their farmed salmon in the islands they were cutting transport costs and their own carbon footprint.

"If you are shipping out a gutted salmon you are also shipping between 28 and 30 per cent of off-cuts as well as a lot of ice on the container, which means that we can reduce our transport impact by at least 40 to 50 per cent by shipping out a value added product," he said.

Grieg Seafood controls around 55 per cent of the isles’ overall salmon production, which stands at around 40,000 tonnes a year.

A fully integrated company, Grieg Seafood operates 44 salmon growing sites in six separate areas off Shetland.

Farms manager Grant Cumming said the clean and cold water around the isles offer some of the best conditions for growing Atlantic salmon.

Once the fish have been harvested and shipped to the factory in Lerwick they are slaughtered, gutted and filleted pre rigor mortis, which is said to provide higher quality and freshness.

Now the company is adding a selection of finished products to its range, adding to its traditional smoked salmon new and interesting seasonings such as shandana, orange pepper and limocello. The products are available as conventional and also organic salmon.

Most of the new computerised production line has been designed specifically for the company, which prides itself as being the first to produce fish products according to consumer demand.

Mr Stark has long been an advocate of more value adding in Shetland and is delighted with the result.

"We developed the WildWaters brand to introduce our value added product range, but this will be rolled out also to our fresh fillets as well as our gutted salmon.

"Exhibiting at a recent international show, customer demand exceeded supply and orders have already been placed with customers in the UK, Germany and Italy. The product will appear on the shelves of Asda stores as of next week," he said.

The £4.2 million investment has been supported by public grant funding from the European Union (£420,000), Highlands and Islands Enterprise (£230,000) and Shetland Islands Council (£230,000). Local investment agency Shetland Development Trust provided a £724,000 loan.

Lerwick Port Authority, which owns the land where the factory stands, invested £1.3 million into the extension and is leasing it back to Grieg Seafood.

Manager of the council's economic development unit, Neil Grant, said the new extension would help promote the isles' as a producer of high quality seafood.

"The seafood industry is worth around £200 million to the economy in Shetland, and employs around a quarter of the isles' workforce.

"One of the things we have been trying to establish for a long time is value adding activity in Shetland and that is exactly what this does.

"Rather then the product having to go through a middleman for processing and thereby losing its identity, we now have the chance to get the product to the customer with the Shetland branding and that we feel is very important," he said.

The extension is to be opened officially at lunchtime today by isles MSP Tavish Scott.