Contact
Jónas Rúnar Viðarsson
Director of Business and Development
jonas@matis.is
Catching, processing and export of live ocean clam
In 2006, the relatives of Íslensk kúffisk ehf. Þórshöfn is exploring the possibilities of fishing and processing live shellfish for the European market, but in many parts of central and southern Europe there are good markets for live sandwich shells. As this was a completely new product, it was clear that this required the development of fishing, processing, transport and marketing, which was different from what has previously been known in the utilization of the kúfi stock in Iceland. Extensive research work had to be done before it could be marketed as a finished product. Much work was put into the development of fishing, processing, storage, transport and promotion of the shell to potential buyers. It can be said that the results of this work have generally been very good and it has now become possible to find solutions to most of the challenges that were started with in the beginning. A live kúfskell is ready as a complete product. It fully compares with other live sandwich shells sold in the central and southern European markets in terms of quality, wholesomeness and delivery security. However, sales of the product have been stagnant. Despite the fact that during the entire project period, distributors, chefs, restaurant owners, retailers and general consumers in important market areas were very well received in important market areas, it has not yet been possible to win the market that was initially aimed at. The main reason for the sluggishness of sales is due to the conservative nature of live sandwich shells. They are simply not willing to try shells other than the ones they know. The promoters will, however, continue to work on marketing live scallops as they know that the product is fully competitive with other sandwich shells sold in the European market.
In 2006 the owners of Íslenskur kúffiskur ehf. in Þórshöfn began to explore the possibilities of catching, processing and exporting live ocean clam from Iceland for the European market, where there is a strong demand for live bivalves. Ocean clam is traditionally not a part of the bivalve species that have been sold alive at these markets in the past, which meant that considerable research and development work had to be done regarding the whole value chain of the clam before it could be ready as a marketable product. The main emphasis of the R&D work was on catching, processing, storage, transportation and marketing. After having worked on solving various challenges in the value chain of the ocean clam for over three years the overall results look promising, as solutions have been developed for most of the tasks that had been defined in the beginning. Live ocean clam is now ready as a final product that is compatible with other bivalves sold in central and southern Europe regarding quality, food safety and delivery reliability. The target markets have however not accepted the product with the same enthusiasm as originally hoped for. The target markets seem to be more conservative than expected when it comes to trying out new alternatives. The outcome of the project is that challenges regarding catching, processing, storing and transportation of live ocean clam have been solved. The final product is therefore ready, but unfortunately the market has not accepted it as hoped for. The project participants will though continue to look for promising markets and are convinced that live ocean clam will become a valuable export product for the Icelandic seafood industry sometime in the future.