The Hull Fish Auction system was installed 18 months ago, and has transformed the way in which fish selling is done in the Humberside region of England. The fish market offers a service like no other in Europe, and it is now a guiding light for the entire fish market industry. The auction is capable of offering a graded product with added value that has been processed in a chilled environment with complete traceability.

The 3 automated grading lines and 1 manual grading line have the capability of handling 4000, 50-kg boxes per day. The Hull Fish Auction regularly handles over 2000 boxes per day. The fish are handled by the Marel system as soon as the fish leave the bulk bins for hopper weighing and then de-icing. From there the fish are directed to any of the 4 grading lines, which enable grading and batching into 40- or 50-kg batches. The batches are then automatically boxed and sent on for weighing, labelling and ice dosing, after which the fish boxes are accumulated in the auction area for selling.

Marel MPS software is the management tool that controls the entire process, providing not only the traceability that Fishgate was looking for, but also the link with the electronic selling system in the auction theatre. Marel is playing a major role in the whole process from incoming raw material handling to the fish box that is sold to the customer on the auction floor.

Fishgate is extremely pleased with the Marel contribution to the new fish market project, which firmly situates Marel at the forefront of fish market technology. There are plans to expand the fish market, and room was left in the design for 2 further grading lines. Fishgate have said on a number of occasions that they would be very pleased to work with Marel in this expansion process.