Thirty-eight seafood products are vying for one of seven prizes to be awarded in the 2011 Seafood Prix d’Elite new products competition. The winners of the 11th annual contest — including the grand prizes for best new retail product and best new foodservice product — will be announced at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, on 3 May. And Agustson AS and Marz Seafood AS are confident that their Hot Smoked Tilapia will stand out amongst a competitive field, which includes three of last year’s six winning companies: Seachill (Icelandic Group), Heiploeg Group and Dish Hospitality.
The Hot Smoked Tilapia loins are a “perfect” addition to the variety of smoked fish products on the market today, according to Agustson and Marz Seafood. The product is boneless, deep-skinned, mild and high in protein. The tilapia is sourced from Regal Springs Tilapia’s Indonesian operations and farmed in a natural manner, free of additives, preservatives, antibiotics and growth hormones. Since the beginning of 2011, Denmark-based Agustson has been working with the Icelandic sales and marketing company Marz Seafood to develop and launch the product.
SeafoodSource caught up with Erla Björg Guðrúnardóttir, general manager of Marz Seafood, to find out more about its Hot Smoked Tilapia and the growing popularity of tilapia in the European market.
Hedlund: Is Agustson and Marz Seafood’s Hot Smoked Tilapia loins the first hot smoked tilapia product to be launched in the European market?
Guðrúnardóttir: Yes, this is the first time a product like this is available for the retail and catering sector.
What are the product’s attributes, in terms of flavor, texture and health?
The natural flavor of the tilapia is a mild sweet taste and with a firm flaky texture. We will be launching our tilapia as a natural hot smoked and then also smoked and marinated in different flavors like Mexicana, curry, pepper, Souvlaki and honey. It has a mild flavor and the neutral taste of the tilapia enhances the marinades; it is made from deep-skinned, boneless loins that are very rich in quality protein and low in calories, total fat, saturated fat and carbohydrates.
What type of feedback about the product have you received so far?
We are scheduled to launch the product with a number of retail chains in the next couple of months in Europe. We have had phenomenal reaction from our customers on how great this product looks and tastes. We believe that our Hot Smoked Tilapia loins will be a great addition to the current stagnated variety of the hot smoked fish products available in the market.
What segments of the European market are you targeting with the product?
Due to the high degree of convenience within this product it is equally suitable for a delicious lunch or as a healthy hot dinner component, or even in a kid’s lunch basket.
Tilapia is now the United States’ fifth most popular seafood item, in terms of per-capita consumption. But tilapia has been slower to catch on in Europe. Do you agree, and what’s tilapia growth potential in Europe?
Yes, we agree. In our opinion it is due to the fact that only few producers have really put emphasis on high quality, and consequently some of the consumers might have been disappointed with the quality of the tilapia as well as pangasius. In our search for a supreme quality product for this project to fit the level of the rest of our assortment we were lead to our partner in Regal Springs.
What would winning a prize in the Seafood Prix d’Elite new products competition mean for your company and your product?
We hoped to achieve two things by entering this prestigious award: One, it would present a unique communication platform in our work with current and new customers. And, two, it would be a confirmation that what we have been so passionate about for so long is actually a great idea and that the time and resources invested in this project are actually well spent.
