Author: admin

This morning Matís ohf. delivered new premises at Vínlandsleið 12. Mótás hf. built the house and furnished it according to Matís' needs.

Matís' operations in Reykjavík have been in 3 locations but will now be merged under one roof and this will be a great streamlining of operations.

"This change will be a revolution for Matís and the company's operations. We are merging operations that are currently in three locations in Reykjavík under one roof. At the same time, it will be a great change and strength for our offices around the country to now be able to have their backing under the same roof in Reykjavík, "says Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís.

The merger in one place lays the foundation for an even stronger work for the research company Matís, and the CEO says that it can be important for innovative projects in the field of the food industry.

"I have no doubt that we are already seeing the results of our emphasis on increasing Matís' collaboration with universities and the business community. This supports innovation in fisheries and agriculture, but also innovations such as food-related tourism, for example. The business community is constantly perceiving better opportunities in research and that is precisely why I welcome the fact that we are enabled to grow with new headquarters when it is important for the national economy to promote innovation, "says Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís.

In the next few days, the new building will be moved and operations there will be fully operational in early January 2010.

Matís thanks Mótás hf. for a very successful collaboration at this time.

From 14 to 23 December 2009, Matís' operations in Reykjavík will move to new shared premises at Vínlandsleið 12 in Grafarholt. Due to the relocation, it will not be possible to receive samples for microbial and service measurements in Reykjavík during this period.

Customers are kindly requested to schedule sampling projects so that they do not fall within the specified transfer dates. If there is an urgent need, we can provide our customers with certain microbial and chemical measurements at our laboratory in Neskaupstaður or at other accredited laboratories that we use as subcontractors during the transfer period.

It is expected that the operation of the service measurements will return to normal as early as the beginning of January next year. As soon as we apologize for any inconvenience our business partners may have from this temporary disruption to Matís 'service measurement operations, we would like to extend a warm welcome to you for your continued business and cooperation in Matís' new and magnificent headquarters.

On behalf of Matís' service measurement staff,

Franklin Georgsson,
Head of Measurement & Communication.

The fishing year 2004/2005 was the first recorded mackerel catch in Icelandic jurisdiction, since then the catch has increased from year to year but in the fishing year 2008/2009 a catch was set, then 100,000 tonnes of mackerel could be caught with Norwegian-Icelandic herring in Icelandic jurisdiction.

The mackerel has mainly been caught in July and August off the coast of Iceland, but in the summer of 2009 Icelandic vessels began to catch mackerel with herring in June and caught mackerel until September. For the next fishing year, 130 thousand tonnes of mackerel have been allocated. 

In order to be able to process mackerel on board Icelandic fishing vessels, they must have certain equipment, first there must be a sorter that sorts the mackerel from the herring. Style classifiers have proven to be good in that respect, but it is also possible to classify the mackerel in that equipment. The traditional processing line used for processing and freezing herring needs to be changed so that the mackerel can be decapitated and gutted before it is frozen. The market is mainly for decapitated and gutted mackerel, as its shelf life is the most.

It is important to be able to classify the mackerel from the Norwegian-Icelandic herring when the species in question are caught together to create the most value from the catch, instead of sending a large part of the mackerel-mixed herring catch for smelting. Numerous experiments have been made with the classification of the species and they have been successful, whether in the processing of only one species or both at a time.

An interesting meeting on opportunities in the Icelandic fisheries sector has just ended, a meeting hosted by Matís, the AVS Fund and the Association of Fish Processing Plants.

The meeting was well attended and about 160 people came to listen to the speeches of Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, CEO of Samherji, and Sveinn Margeirsson, division manager at Matís.

The aim of the meeting was to shed light on opportunities and possibilities for better utilization and increased value. Icelanders are at the forefront of the utilization of marine resources and have strong and powerful fisheries companies with years of experience in meeting the needs of the market. But our raw material is a limited resource and therefore it is necessary to make the best use of it and create great value from it.

Þorsteinn Már's speech can be found here and Sveinn's talk can be found here.

For further information, please contact Sveinn Margeirsson, sveinn.margeirsson@matis.is, and Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, steinar.b.adalbjornsson@matis.is.