Ten years of growth for Murmansk value-added processor

On the 12th of June 2009 a leading Murmansk value-added processor Nord West F.C. marked 20 years since its establishment in 1989, the firm's deputy commercial director Gennadi Kobylinski explained to EUROFISH Magazine during a recent visit.

The firm began in 1989 with a small factory manufacturing a couple of fish products but today the company's production range exceeds 250 fish and meat specialities for sale both in Russia and CIS, as well as for export to Europe and USA.

More specifically, the firm's business is to process cod, Greenland halibut, salmon, sturgeon, wolfish and pelagic species, etc. to produce a range of cold smoked sliced fillets, mildly salted and sliced / whole fillets, frozen fillet blocks, cold smoked pelagics, canned items, preserves and mince. Products are either vacuum-packed or boxed.

Nord West places a special emphasis on what it calls fish culinary products such as fish sticks and fish cakes. The firm started to produce these items from cod some years ago and today it is experimenting with other species as raw material.

In particular, Nord West has recently started production of "Oceanic sticks" from mixed raw material, including apart from cod also blue whiting. Salmon cakes are another new variety. These products are intended for the home market and sales have been acceptable, according to Mr. Kobylinski.

Chilled cod and other species are landed for processing at the firm's factories by two small company-owned trawlers and a number of chartered fishing boats. Besides this the firm has made long-term procurement contracts with a number of Murmansk fleets.

Mr. Kobylinski underlined that the products are delivered to customers in Murmansk, the rest of Russia and in Europe by the company's own fleet of reefer trucks.

Today Nord West employs more than 600 people. The combine as it is made up of two fish processing departments, one meat processing factory, a fishing fleet, a fleet of reefer trucks and both a retail and wholesale trading network, summed up the deputy commercial director.

Exports

Nord West's foreign trade director Alexander Slivko joined in to tell EUROFISH Magazine that exported products are processed mostly from cod and include 16 oz. fillet blocks, loins and various other IGF fillet products. Depending on the needs of the customer, the firm can produce any type of IGF fillets for export. Thus, fillet blocks and IGF fillets are the main export products, which, apart from cod, can also be manufactured from haddock and sometimes saithe.

The goods are exported to Germany, Belgium and Norway and via the latter, they find their way to USA. Deliveries have also been made to Denmark, France and many other countries, which use fillet blocks for further processing.

IQF fillets are a fairly new development and they have been sold for export in substantial volumes only over the last couple of years to these same markets.

Export sales constitute about a third in the firm's total output, with out of the existing three factories two are busy supplying the home market.

The company experiences no major problems selling export goods but what the company is looking for is to get more efficient orders in terms of the best yield from raw cod, Alexander Slivko explained. This means that, on top of cutting out the fillets, Nord West is also keen to sell loins, centre cuts and tails, the trimmings must also be sold either as mince or as they are.

It is the policy of the firm to move from what they call simple fillet blocks to deeper processing. They have already advanced in that direction and are open for partnership with foreign businesses in this area, concluded Mr Slivko.

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions:

1. When was the company organized?

2. What was the assortment of the products initially?

3. What is the range of products now?

4. What species of fish are processed?

5. Where are the products sold?

6. What part does export sale constitute?

7. What countries is the production sold in?

8. What is the policy of the company?

9. What new products do they develop?

10. Have you ever bought the products of the company?

TEXT 5

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text with the help of a dictionary.