Q&A: Ireland looks to product innovation

When the Seafood Development Centre (SDC) opened in Clonakilty, Co. Cork, eight months ago, BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mhara) promised to help Ireland’s seafood companies achieve EUR 100 million in additional value-added seafood sales over the next five years. It's the country’s first dedicated seafood product innovation facility, spanning 768 square meters.

This week, SeafoodSource caught up with BIM coordinator Dr. Susan Steele to see how the project is progressing.

Holmyard: Why a Seafood Development Centre? 
Steele: Its creation was a key recommendation of a government-adopted industry strategy for 2007-13 to restructure the Irish seafood industry. It was set up to address a lack of new seafood products, which was placing Irish seafood producers at a global competitive disadvantage.

The center is part of a program that is helping companies to use new technology to develop greater processing capability and to look at new product development and improved packaging. The aim is to encourage innovation in both processing and marketing of seafood.

Currently, 85 percent of total [product] in the Irish seafood sector is sold as commodities. For every 10 percent conversion to value-added seafood, we estimate that an additional EUR 35 million to 40 million per annum in sales can be generated.

What’s your role?
My role as innovation coordinator is dynamic and exciting. It involves day-to-day running of the SDC with its two business incubation units, processing floor and kitchen area, and managing a team who are enthusiastic and passionate about the seafood industry.

I work closely with BIM product development and business mentors who provide technical support, project management and development advice throughout the process. A major part of helping to develop innovative ideas and products is assessing market viability and overcoming obstacles to make new product concepts a reality.

We try to remove risk for companies by offering relevant practical support throughout the development cycle. The job is very varied as we work with small to large companies on a diverse range of concepts from improving a bread crumb mix to working with large numbers of live lobsters.

What are the industry’s major challenges over the next five years?
The main challenges are to develop new ways to add value to the incredible natural resource around our coastline and to maintain competitiveness and cost effectiveness in a challenging financial environment. This takes time, money and risk, and we aim to help industry reduce these.

What has the SDC achieved so far?
Interest in the center has been phenomenal, and we have been approached by 90 companies who want us to help them with a diverse range of new product development ideas. The whole industry is fired up by the idea of innovation helping them to improve sales. Ideas range from new ways of cooperating across an entire sector to small details such as helping with a blast-freezer problem. We have run workshops on new machinery and taken companies to packaging workshops in France and to international food fairs to look at competitors’ products. We have done a great deal of work with other agencies to provide financial and practical support for companies, and this holistic approach has been beneficial for industry.

To date, we have launched two brand new projects onto the market and are on target to launch four more before the end of the year. We have also done a lot of problem solving on issues with existing products and have helped companies designing and building new plants. It is still early days but we are delighted with the enthusiasm for our unit and its services and have no doubt that the seafood development center is on the crest of a wave of change in the Irish seafood industry. There is great potential to boost Ireland’s seafood product delivery and I am really excited about helping companies tap into this.

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