В статье приводится модель используемая компанией Исландский океанский кластер для организации добычи рыбопродуктов и последующей переработки в различные товары потребления.
Исландия, океан, кластер, исследования
The ICELAND Ocean Cluster has been operating for over six years. The Iceland Ocean Cluster’s mission is to create value by connecting together entrepreneurs, businesses and knowledge in the marine industries. To serve this mission we provide a range of services and invest our resources in new marine spin-offs and projects.
The cluster has grown considerably in this short period of time. We have now over 120 companies in our network and an accelerator in 3000 square meter space. The companies in the network are from all parts of the ocean value chain with the main emphasis on seafood. We also opened a sister cluster in New England in 2015 and plan to open an accelerator space there this September. Twelve companies have been established as spin offs of the cluster.
Let me first explain the initial reason for the establishment of the Iceland Ocean Cluster.
Research has indicated that high tech entrepreneurs in seafood are less connected in their industry ecosystem than high tech entrepreneurs in various other fields. This is most likely explained by the fact that seafood entrepreneurs tend to be in coastal areas which often are not linked to the startup communities in larger cities.
The ocean related industries do also face obstacles as they are depicted in the media as first and foremost fisheries. Ships are shown in strong winds with high waves and the fishermen work in very tough conditions. These simplistic pictures of the seafood industry combined with minimal interest/knowhow in the startup community about “the ocean” partly explains the lack of interest among new generations in fisheries!
In my PhD research at the University of Iceland, my focus was particularly on this issue. I know we can change this, and we do that by challenging the startup community and the media to get excited about new companies and opportunities in the ocean industry. As a result, I wanted to build a network which could lower threshold in this industry. The IOC was established.
Our initial research also indicated Iceland had been in the forefront of full utilization of whitefish. Instead of cheering we knew there were more opportunities. This slide shows the products Iceland is creating from the fish.
Many coastal towns around the Atlantic were, in the past, plentiful of jobs and opportunities as they benefited economically from resourceful oceans. With significant cuts in fisheries many of these areas have been stagnating for over 20 years. This can be changed if these ecosystems are better linked into the startup/R&D world.
The lack of networking among the entrepreneurs and cooperation among industries in the coastal areas may indicate there are opportunities which have not been utilized - not least opportunities for future generations of well-educated people. There are significant “blind spots” in large parts of these areas which have not been explored. There is an opportunity to build seafood/ocean accelerators in coastal communities with the aim to connect different parts of the ecosystem. The mission here is to connect different parts of the value chain so that the industry can steadily move up the value chain depicted on this slide.
The Ocean Cluster House in Iceland is the first private accelerator in the world focused solely on the seafood ecosystem. We have 70 seafood related companies in the House. By connecting the entire ecosystem: fisheries, marine technology, R&D, product design, universities, investors, etc., we have been able to create over ten new startups in less than three years. Our research has indicated a global interest and need for this approach. Our vision is to take this concept to other coastal areas where seafood is a main livelihood and central to the community to stimulate growth in the industry.
Innovative health-, pharmaceutical- and even fashion products from the wild fish stock are being developed in the Iceland Ocean Cluster. There lies our opportunity; Icelanders are putting their minds to create more value from each fish. The results are already out: We are getting at least 30% more value from each Cod than most developed countries. On this slide we see that over half of the fish is actually used as landfill or thrown to sea in many countries. Fish is not only the fillet, it is also rod becoming health products, the liver becoming omega and pharmaceuticals, the head and bones used – basically nothing is left for the dust bin. To put this in numbers: In the year 1981 the total catch of cod in Icelandic waters was 460 thousand tons. In 2013 it was down to 236 thousand tons, but the export value more than doubled in real terms. And now the science have started to advise us to increase the catch which is of course very welcomed.
We expanded our operation by opening a sister cluster in New England, USA in 2015. Our experience with the early success of the New England Ocean Cluster has taught us that even though fish species are different from one region to the next, many industry characteristics remain the same, and clusters can learn from each other. The early success of the New England cluster is definitely a result of a strong local leadership which had focused on building relationship ties among seafood entrepreneurs and between entrepreneurs and academia - bridging these islands. We are confident in stating that we are continuously learning more but also realizing that all this work is firmly grounded in fairly simple ideas of human interactions. We are now working closely with other groups in the US to establish a network of clusters. We are also looking to expand the network to coastal areas in the Europe.
Key element is sustainability and quality of the products beginning on the vessel or with the farmer and has to be kept as the highest priority throughout the processing and the whole value chain. That is what makes the product more valuable.
This is what our industry has achieved; not necessarily catching or producing more but increasing the value through better quality. This is shown on this slide where less catch in 2011 compared to 1981 but the value of this catch was much higher.
But you are never done. The industry is continuing its efforts to increase value and income only with limited increase in catches. The emphasis now is on focusing on research and product development from all parts of the raw material at hand.
Our doors are open to you and I am sure that goes for others from Iceland here with us today.
