Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1482386
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2022 NEWS Budget 2023 on Monday 24 October Anyone got €5 billion to spare? Ukraine Supply chain crisis Gas prices Cost of living MATTHEW VELLA WASTE not, want not – not the proverb always suited for the Maltese bluefin tuna ranching industry, an exploitative busi- ness often blamed for hastening the overfishing of tuna stocks destined for the Japanese food market. But in Ħal Far, on an indus- trial wasteland looking to the south of the Mediterranean, the main players in this mul- ti-million export business are joining the circular economy – the business of reusing goods to create a sustainable lifecycle for the industry. To critics of tuna ranching, the brand new €12 million factory that turns tuna offal, heads and fins into fishmeal and high-quality oil might be a dull, silver lining for an activi- ty whose success is dependent on industrialised fishing – one that also turned artisanal fish- erman into powerless specta- tors of the large purse seiners and tuna ranches. But as Charlon Gouder, the CEO of Aquaculture Resourc- es Limited, says, the industry has finally managed to recov- er a not-so-insignificant waste resource to be turned into a high-quality export commod- ity. "It's hard to believe but, until now, almost 25% of the total amount of fish was being dis- carded as waste. This was of huge economic and environ- mental concern. It made little economic sense. That one sta- tistic puts the importance of this facility into perspective," he says at ARL's new process- ing plant, where Danish tech- nicians are currently commis- sioning the factory's machines. It is, to put in lazy layman's terms, one giant fish broth – tuna heads, gills, fins... freshly caught the previous day, are being taken out of the freezer trucks, as forklift trucks raise plastic containers into a gi- ant grinder. It is incredible to see the huge quantity of tuna meat, still edible, clinging to the severed heads of these no- ble 200kg beasts, that would otherwise be treated as 'waste' – traditionally dumped back into the sea under strict envi- ronmental permit conditions – and now being turned into an edible product as fish-meal for pet foods and nutraceuti- cal products, with potential for further human use. The blood trickles off the con- tainer as the giant head stocks and dorsal fins are dumped in- to a series of machines – a hop- per, a breaker, then a Lamella pump – that will generate a fine granular raw material of tuna meat. Immediately, the container tubs are placed into a covered €600,000 power-wash system that also air-dries the tubs, then robotically stacks them up for re-use. It is an impressive feat of quasi-au- tomation that allows minimal wastage – the water is divert- ed instantly to a waste-water treatment plant on-site – with no odours from the frozen tu- na. The days here will end with a daily, three-hour cleansing operation for the entire 'wet' portion of this plant. The granulated raw materi- al now enters a second phase of separation, with a centrifu- gal force separating the solids from its oils. While the oils are diverted to their final contain- ers the solids are transport to a massive disc-dryer – the cen- trepiece 'oven' in this plant – which moves these solids slow- ly from one end to the other, where they are gently steamed and cooked. Even the resultant water from this process gets turned into a demi-glace treated in pretty much the same way as a fish- stock, the water being allowed to evaporate, so that the re- sultant protein gets added to the solids inside the disc-dryer. "We're using the raw material entirely," says ARL's techni- cal consultant Tristan Camill- eri, proud to explain how five tonnes of raw material will be processed at each hour, to pro- duce an annual output of 450 tonnes in fish meal, and 550 tonnes of oil each year – con- servatively valued at €3 million in exports. "This is high-value oil. We are getting high yields, with huge Omega values, and producing best-in-indus- try quality fishmeal," he says, handing me the bottarga-like dust of tuna granules. It is not an operation that is without problems: the prohib- itive cost of the plant's daily operations presents challenges of how to ensure the fledgling plant can achieve full opera- tional activity once the tuna No animal part to waste: tuna ranchers join circular revolution To critics, industrialised tuna fishing super-charged Maltese exports to Japan with exploitative practices. But the island's major players hope their waste re-use plant can offer their business higher standards and sustainability