MMC First Process and Marel establish a joint venture to transform the pelagic industry

The joint venture partners intend to increase profitability by extending the scope of processing and maximizing value creation from pelagic resources. Premium quality can be achieved through early processing, near the fishing grounds, and by maintaining ideal temperature conditions. The future consumer market will tend to focus on ready-to-eat products. The remaining raw material will be used to produce high-quality, high-value products for other markets. Examples are fish oils, food additives and nutritional ingredients.

We strive to maintain  quality, and the quality battle starts at the moment when the fish are caught. The goal of the Pelagic Transformation is to improve profitability, predictability and continuity by producing to order, thus enabling the industry to supply the consumer market with high-value products year-round” says Per-Arild Aamelfot, who will lead the pelagic transformation in MMC First Process.

Sustainability creates values for our customers

“The partnership with Marel fits perfectly with our sustainability and scaling philosophy, and we are certain that we will succeed together in helping the pelagic industry to create greater values of the biomass and also make full use of the residual raw material”, says Petter Leon Fauske.  “We can see that it is becoming more and more important to preserve the quality of the raw material and produce a high-quality final product close to the fishing grounds. This helps to improve the consumer product, and a lower CO2 footprint. MMC First Process is therefore taking the lead on continued development of the industry and has invited Marel to join in this exciting and timely venture,“ concludes Fauske.

For 30 years, MMC First Process has worked at developing solutions that help its seafood industry customers to manage their biomass more sustainably. In the 1990s, the company started development of what is now regarded as the world standard in 20-kilo boxes for fish

handling. There have been many initiatives to manage and process more of the marine biomass, and now two leading companies are joining forces to continue work and “Transform the Pelagic industry”.

Shared vision

“We are extremely pleased with the new joint venture agreement with MMC First Process” says Marel’s Diego Lages, Sales Director at Marel. “A Norwegian-owned company with more than 30 years’ experience and a global portfolio that shares our vision of providing safe and affordable food that is produced in a sustainable way. We share the goal of ensuring that as much of the biomass as possible goes to human consumption. Therefore, we contribute to ensuring that the whole fish is utilized and nothing goes to waste. Creating more affordable and sustainable products.

Our fields of expertise complement one another, offering excellent synergy. We are confident that their know-how and our technology will create added value for our customers and enable us to develop sustainable solutions and systems.” Says Diego Lages

Long-term partnership with Marel

“Scalability and flexibility have been top priorities for MMC First Process and a key part of the business model has always been a network of good partners. 

Most of our current business partners have been with us since start-up. Marel brings a new dimension to secondary processing, and learning more about our partner will be an exciting process. We have worked very well for many years as allies and competitors in other areas, but the opportunity here is to be able to collaborate closely and take major steps forward.

We can see that much of the expertise we have built up in aquaculture is transferable to the pelagic industry and this will help us optimise biomass utilisation and value creation for pelagic industry participants,” says Per-Arild Aamelfot, with many years of experience from this industry.  “Being able to use the experiences that the company has from one subject to another is valuable for the company and for the industry. These are important synergies and we have great faith in them.” he concludes.

Global potential

“We see enormous potential wherever there is focus on handling the biomass as gentle as possible at controlled temperature to achieve the best quality of final product.

When we get started with ready-to-eat products from Norway, we expect other markets to follow,  we call it Pelagic Transformation.

With MMC First Process as system integrator, combined with Marel's expertise, market access and technology, we join forces to spend significant, high-quality resources on the task of transforming the pelagic industry again.”