Gøta, Faroe Islands-based salmon-farming agency Hiddenfjord is celebrating the one-year anniversary of ceasing its use of air freight to move its fish, with a subsequent reduction of CO2 emissions by 94 percent.
Hiddenfjord CEO Atli Gregersen stated he was impressed to take motion following a speak about local weather change by Boomtown Rats singer and political activist Bob Geldof at a convention within the Faroes.
“Geldof stated that in case you act as a substitute of simply desirous about doing one thing, then it’ll occur. You simply have to make the choice, then the ‘if’ turns into ‘what do I do now to attain my aim,’ and all of a sudden you’re considering in a different way,” Gregersen informed SeafoodSource.
The choice was one of many best to make when it comes to environmental advantages, however one of many hardest when it comes to economics, Gregersen stated.
“As a family-owned firm, we’re ready to consider what’s essential, fairly than being pushed by a have to fulfill investor stability sheets. We now have lengthy been pushed by a want to provide a really sustainable product and had already begun to cut back our carbon footprint by sending salmon to Europe and Russia through sea transport. Nevertheless, it appeared not possible to succeed in distant markets equivalent to the united statesA. and China with out utilizing air freight,” Gregersen stated. “We had been involved that if we stopped flying recent fish to the Chinese language and American markets, that are probably the most profitable, then this may result in a short-term monetary disaster for the corporate. Nevertheless, we picked a date, 10 October, 2020, then found out methods to make it work.”
An extra impetus for Hiddenfjord’s transfer was the publication of a report on the greenhouse gasoline emissions of Norwegian seafood merchandise by European analysis institute SINTEF. The report revealed air freight emits round 50 instances as a lot CO2 as sea freight, and advisable discovering various strategies of transport for any merchandise that would feasibly be moved by sea as a substitute of air. Gregersen challenged the remainder of the salmon trade to comply with swimsuit, particularly in response to the 14 October launch of the Local weather Transparency Report – the annual overview of G20 local weather motion – which revealed that carbon emissions are as soon as once more on the rise, following a dip throughout world COVID-19 lockdowns. The G20 international locations account for 75 % of the world’s carbon emissions.
“We labored out that our salmon has a CO2 footprint of 5 kilograms per kilo of completed product, when iced, boxed, and able to depart the manufacturing facility, however flying it to the united statesA provides an extra seven kilograms of CO2 to the footprint, whereas a flight to China provides round 15 kilograms extra CO2 per kilo of salmon,” Gregersen stated. “This merely was not acceptable to us, and we figured that salmon are supposed to swim, to not fly.”
Gregersen stated his firm’s transportation transition has been aided by the nice repute of its “Raised within the Wild” salmon, grown in open-sea pens in uncovered, high-current areas of the Faroes. However earlier than switching over fully to sea shipments, he stated the corporate pushed arduous to excellent its high quality management and processing methods.
“We knew that the standard of the salmon needed to be spot-on earlier than it left the processing unit, so we began to rethink our harvesting, cleansing, chilling, and packing methods to see how we may enhance the shelf-life,” he stated. “The fish is now packaged on ice simply three hours after stress-free harvesting, sealed into chilled containers within the manufacturing facility, and stays in an unbroken, regulated cool chain till it reaches our prospects in excellent situation in additional than a dozen international locations worldwide.”
Regardless of the preparations, Hiddenfjord’s first trial of sea-freighting its salmon to the U.S. didn’t go as anticipated. The primary container was routed by means of a U.Okay. port that was not accustomed to fast-tracking chilled containers, after which salmon arrived in New York simply because the pandemic hit and town went into lockdown.
“We nonetheless managed to promote a few of that cargo, and it gave us hope that we had been heading in the right direction,” Gregersen stated. “The reply was to modify to transport out of Iceland and docking in Portland, [Maine], a journey of 9 days, and that is working very effectively.”
Gregersen stated there had been issues that a number of the fish is greater than two weeks previous by the point it reaches prospects, however a current blind sampling carried out with 100 U.S. shoppers testing salmon shipped by air and sea discovered each rated equally favorable when it comes to style, texture, and aroma.
Gross sales to the US are actually growing month on month and at present account for 40 % of Hiddenfjord’s quantity, in accordance with Gregersen.
In tandem with creating the marketplace for sea-freight recent salmon, the corporate has additionally been trialing shipments of frozen salmon to China, that are refreshed near market and bought as a calming product.
“Each freezing and refreshing expertise have developed significantly over the previous few years, and we consider that this represents the way forward for promoting high-quality salmon fillet wherever on the planet, to compete with recent salmon. Trials have gone effectively to date, and it’s a nice product for sushi and sashimi, however there’s nonetheless a technique to go to beat client perceptions that refreshed salmon is nearly as good as recent, particularly within the Asian market,” Gregersen stated. “Simply watch this house!”
Picture courtesy of Hiddenfjord