This was stated in a speech by Haukur Már Gestsson, an economist who works within the Sjávarklasan, at the Fisheries Conference in Reykjavík recently, and also recently Sigjón Arason, Matís' chief engineer, made a good report on Stöðvar 2's news.
The utilization of cod in the North Atlantic countries is noticeably best in Iceland or 76%, while it is 50% in the Faroe Islands, 45% in Canada and 43% in Greenland. "I believe that the main reason for better utilization here is greater utilization of by-products, and this is undoubtedly thanks to both the regulations and the good collaboration between companies and Matís, but good fillet utilization certainly plays a part. The liver is a good example of a product that is well used in this country. Most of it goes into fish oil and is boiled down. Eggs are also new.
Utilization to increase
The same is true of heads and bones. Almost all cod heads that come to Iceland go for drying, as does a growing part of the cod heads that fall on freezer trawlers. These products are sold to Nigeria. From the accompanying graph, it can be assumed that utilization has deteriorated in Iceland since 2009. Haukur says that this does not have to be the case. "Care must be taken in comparing utilization between individual years. For example, a product manufactured in 2009 is sometimes not shown in export figures for the following year. It therefore makes more sense to look at the graph over a longer period of time and accordingly the utilization is increasing. On the other hand, it can be seen from the diagram that utilization in the other countries has been declining. I have no explanation for that. "
Norwegians strong
According to Haukur, he did not have good enough data to include Norway in this comparison. "Norwegians have looked at this themselves and according to that their utilization is about 41%, but since a different method was used than I used, care must be taken in comparing these figures. Norway is more powerful than most other nations in exploring opportunities in by-products, for example by exporting eggs and oysters to Asia. A special organization was established there, RUBIN, which received a lot of funding to research by-products, but this institution has actually just been closed down today. "
Guts and heads are of little use
"I believe that Icelanders should be able to go one step further to make better use of, for example, gutters, heads and bones and maximize their value. The head is between 20 and 30% of each fish and according to a Matís survey, only a small part of the heads is used if the cod is excluded, "says Haukur Már Gestsson in the end.
The above article first appeared in Viðskiptablaðið on November 29, 2012. The author of the column is Vilmundur Hansen, vilmundur (at) fiskifrettir.is.
Here You can find Stöðvar 2's news from 19 October. For further information Sigurjón Arason, Matís' chief engineer.