Quick fix: Mowi plans extra processing plant at Fort William by mid-2021
Mowi Scotland has announced plans to build a standalone processing unit at its Blar Mhor factory in Fort William as a temporary measure to meet its needs for the next five years.
In the longer term it wants to build a state-of-the-art processing plant at its site at Kyleakin, Skye, where it already has a feed plant and a pier.
“Mowi’s Blar Mhor primary processing plant in Fort William was built in 1987 with a design capacity of 5,000 tonnes per annum,” said processing operations director Ewan MacColl in the May edition of The Scoop staff newsletter.
Standalone unit
“With capacity-increasing modifications made over the past three decades, last year our incredible workforce managed to process 66,000 tonnes of salmon at our Blar Mhor plant. However, with no more internal space available to us in the existing structure, the building is now the limiting factor for any future growth.
“After much consideration and expert review, we feel that a standalone processing unit alongside Blar Mhor can provide the additional capacity required for the next five years, and also assist us with the more manual operation associated with a growing demand for premium quality standards and brands.”
Mowi plans a standalone processing unit consisting of fish intake by either road tanker or harvest bins. It would have one automatic gutting line and one semi-automatic hand gutting line; manual grading and packaging; one line with weighing, icing and lidding; and a palletisation and dispatch area with pneumatic lifting assistance. There will be staff welfare facilities and packaging storage on the first floor.
“We will soon be applying for planning permission with hopes to start construction late this year with the facility being operational mid-2021,” said MacColl.
Circular economy
Ben Hadfield, chief operating officer for the farming division in Scotland and Ireland, said that although expanding Blar Mhor helped in the medium term, it was not the level of automation that the business needs to be prepared for the future.
Mowi needed “a plant next to the sea with efficiencies that process whole live fish into trimmed fillets and full utilisation of all by-products to create a fuller circular economy”.
The company said it had received Major Pre-Application Advice from Highland Council for its Kyleakin proposal, which it described a first step in a very long and thorough planning process.
Public consultation
“Future steps will include a full environmental impact assessment, Mowi board approval and a thorough public consultation process not only with other statutory bodies like Scottish Natural Heritage, but also community groups and individuals from Skye, Fort William and Mallaig who we understand will have questions,” said MacColl.
“If we were successful with our planning application, then the new facility would not be operational until after 2025.”
Nearly 1,600 tonnes of salmon from Mowi Scotland were processed on the Norwegian Gannet factory ship in the third quarter of 2019 as “unprecedented” harvesting levels exceeded the capacity of Blar Mhor.
Another 1,102 tonnes were processed at Mowi’s plant in Donegal, Ireland.
