Supercooling know-how for fish business warms up enterprise at Canada-Iceland commerce present

Freyr Fridriksson has one thing he thinks Atlantic Canadian seafood corporations need: a strategy to maintain harvested fish recent longer than earlier than.

He is the proprietor of KAPP, an Icelandic firm that manufactures supercooling gear that shoots slurry ice out of a hose, enveloping harvested fish and quickly bringing their temperature down, however not freezing them strong, inside two hours of touchdown.

Slurry ice might be made on board a ship touchdown white fish like haddock and cod or onshore processing farmed salmon. It is an enchancment on standard flaked ice storage.

“You get extra shelf lifetime of your fish, so you can, for instance, have it within the retailer perhaps three, 4, 5 days longer than uncommon strategies. And also you get higher high quality as a result of it’s cooled so shortly,” stated Fridriksson.

Fridriksson is a part of an Icelandic commerce delegation in Halifax this week assembly with dozens of Atlantic corporations in a primary Canada-Iceland commerce present targeted on seafood know-how.

“We simply need to introduce this to the market. We have now been involved with a number of the fundamental leaders right here and with regards to, for instance whitefish, they usually know us and I feel sooner or later we may have an enormous alternative right here,” he stated.

Supercooling know-how

Supercooling has enabled the Iceland transport line Eimskip to hold recent salmon from Iceland and the Faroe Islands throughout the Atlantic to Halifax and Portland, Maine, as cargo in a container field. It is cheaper than having to air freight it into North America.

“I imply that was not occurring two years, three years in the past,” stated Iceland’s ambassador to Canada Hlynur Guðjónsson, who helped arrange the commerce present in partnership with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, a federal innovation fund.

“You’ll be able to Enhance the product life that’s providing you with a aggressive edge.”

Along with chilly storage, protein processing and ship design, the Icelandic delegation contains three banks.

“I do know from my conversations with a number of the Canadian gamers that, particularly, should you’re a small- and medium-sized firm, you do not really feel you may get the curiosity from Canadian banks that you really want,” stated Guðjónsson.

Iceland banks have been in Canada for a few a long time.

Commerce present two-way road

Tim Spanos. government director of worldwide banking at Islandsbanki, stated expertise with the seafood business offers them perspective to look past cycles within the business.

“Having the ability to take an extended view and, in some respects, having a better threat urge for food for the best purchasers, for selective purchasers, you understand, we expect that is necessary,” he stated.

“We really feel like we will compete together with your banks right here.”

The tech commerce present just isn’t a a method road.

On Friday, the Deep Sense IBM marine information centre at Dalhousie College showcased the unreal intelligence (AI) capabilities it has developed, which embrace fish-counting software program.

And Joe Murphy from Halifax primarily based Graphite Innovation and Applied sciences, which has developed a brilliant slippery non-toxic hull paint that reduces gasoline consumption, sees a market in Iceland.

“Talking with corporations right here right this moment, everybody’s targeted on inexperienced know-how. We offer a fantastic alternative for corporations in Iceland that wish to undertake newer applied sciences, changing current coatings market for example,” Murphy stated.