Tímarit Verkfræðingafélags Íslands - 01.12.1967, Qupperneq 151

TlMARIT VFl 1967
149
ur 1. og 2. flokks. Þessa klefa má líka nota við að
fullþurrka harðfisk, svo að næg verkefni yrðu
fyrir þá.
Mynd 8. Unnið að fiskaðgerð — upphækkuð hausunar-
vél í baksýn.
Þar sem aðalsaltfiskframleiðslan hér sunnan-
og vestanlands stendur ekki yfir nema ca. %
hluta af árinu (vetrarvertíðina), yrði heppilegt
fyrir saltfiskstöðvamar að hafa önnur verkefni
hinn hluta ársins til að nýta húsin sem bezt og
tryggja jafna vinnu í þeim, t.d. með margbreyti-
legri síldarvinnslu, þurrkun, neytendapakkningu
saltfisks, niðurlagningu fisks, smáfrystingu o.fl.
Til þess að svo megi verða, þarf fyrst að fara
fram víðtæk tilraunastarfsemi hér innanlands
samfara sölukynningu og markaðsleit bæði utan
lands og innan.
Nú sem stendur er um % af útfluttum stór-
fiski upp úr salti í 1. og 2. gæðaflokki, en með
batnandi efnahag og gæðakröfum neytendanna
erlendis, þyrfti þessi hlutfallstala að hækka til
að tryggja öruggan framtíðarmarkað fyrir salt-
fisk okkar.
Summary
This paper is divided into 3 main parts, i.e. a)
the importance of the saltfish industry for Ice-
land, b) the procedure of salting and drying
operations and c) industrialization of saltfish
plants in Iceland.
Part I: Characteristic for Icelandic saltfish
is the large size of the fish, mainly cod, usually
utilized as raw material — large saltfish sells
for a much better price than small saltfish. Table
I shows the export of wetsalted and dried salt-
fish from Iceland during the past 65 years.
During the last 10 years, the annual export from
Iceland is about half of that during the years
between World Wars I and II (figures for
dried fish converted into wetsalted fish). At that
time saltfish was the most important export item,
but now it amounts to only 10%—13% of the
total export and is now 3rd in importance. The
two largest export items are frozen fish products
and fishmeal and fish oils, next is saltfish and
then salted herring, stockfish, iced fish etc. etc.
Based on cost figures in 1965, the production of
wetsalted large fish increases the value of the
raw fish by about 88%.
Part II: The salting operation requires much
hard labour when no labour-saving equipment
is used, or about 30 man-hours per ton of
produced saltfish for heading, gutting, splitting,
salting, repiling, packaging and salt shovelling.
The yield of large ungutted cod during
sphtting, salting and drying is about 100 parts
ungutted fish which makes about 75—80 parts
gutted fish with head, about 55 parts split fish
and about 32—35 parts salted fish. During
drying, the reduction in weight is 20%, 30% and
40% depending on the final drying stage.
Part III: The saltfish industry has been
slower in adopting modern production techniques
than most of the younger industries. However
during recent years many of the saltfish
plants have made great changes in this respect.
Now between 35—40 saltfish plants are equipped
with Baader heading and splitting machines and
good conveyor systems around these machines.
Many of the smaller plants also use some con-
veyor system. Furthermore, some saltfish plants
use compact fork lift trucks for most of the
internal transport as well as for salt shovelling.
About 10—15 drying chambers are equipped with
electronic control equipment where temperatures
and humidity are automatically controlled. The
newer buildings are now larger and brighter and
working conditions have been greatly improved
upon.
In conclusion the paper deals with the im-
portance of better handling of the fish for pro-
ducing better quality saltfish and the need for
further industriahzation in the saltfish industry.