Chinese seafood-processing firm Pan Fish has opened a USD 50 million (EUR 43.7 million) seafood processing facility near Qingdao, China.
The plant will boast an annual processing capacity of 60,000 metric tons once its first phase is fully operational. In that first phase, the facility will mainly focus on salmon before broadening into the processing of other imported species like king crab and shrimp.
Tony Chang, the chairman of the firm, which also operates under the name PanChief Aquatic, explained during the facility’s opening ceremony that the plant will serve as a processing and trading base to supply the Chinese, Asian, and wider global market, aiming to tap into demand for salmon from the catering and retail sectors in particular.
Pan Fish already has a robust client portfolio within this space, including Domino’s, KFC, and Sam's Club in China.
According to Norwegian architecture firm Thommesen, which designed the facility, the plant is among the most advanced of its kind both in China and globally.
“Organized around a continuous product flow and built to international food safety standards, the plant entered production on 4 July as one of the world’s most advanced high-end salmon-processing centres,” Thommesen said in a release.
A Shandong TV media outlet further described the facility as possessing “world-class fully intelligent production lines and achieving automated control throughout the entire process from raw material pretreatment to precision cutting and aseptic packaging.”
Yuan Quanyun, the deputy general manager of Pangshi Aquatic Products, which both invested and was involved in the construction of the facility, told local media the company chose Jiaozhou, China, as the location for the plant due to its proximity to an international airport, allowing salmon flown from Norway to be delivered to the factory in 30 minutes.
Frode Arntsen, the CEO of Norwegian salmon-farming firm SalMar, which recently signed an agreement to acquire 70 percent of fellow aquaculture firm Måsøval in a deal worth NOK 3.4 billion (USD 348 million, EUR 304 million), attended the ceremony along with Saveliy Karpukhin, who is the chairman of the Russian Fishery Co.
