This is the North Sea shrimp, also known in the Netherlands as “Hollandse garnaal” (Dutch shrimp) and in Belgium as ”Grijze garnaal” (Grey shrimp) while in the UK it is more commonly known as 'brown shrimp'. It is a small species that is fished by shrimpers from the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Germany and Denmark. Trawlers are used: nets with rubber bobbins that are dragged along the bottom. The shrimp are immediately cooked on board of the cutters and then taken to fish auction. Processors, such as Heiploeg, will buy the shrimp there. Heiploeg preserves the shrimp and transports them to Morocco. There they are peeled in four large conditioned peeling plants.
Peeling brown shrimp (Crangon crangon)
Heiploeg still has shrimp hand peeled. In the past, this manual work used to be contracted out in villages and towns and peeling was done at home. The home peeling prohibition put a stop to this; shrimp traders were forced to organise peeling as a business to ensure that issues related to the Commodities Act could be supervised and controlled.
Peeling in factory spaces was not seen as an attractive alternative in the Netherlands. Peeling was traditionally a supplementary income with which housewives and elderly people could arrange their time and freedom according to their own preferences during the day and evening. Although the supplementary income was not in the Netherlands roughly a full salary, it was a very welcome extra income that could be combined with everyday activities. Peeling was, therefore, contracted out to low wage countries, not just because the peeling price would be lower, but mainly because a labour market was available in these countries that included people that would see such a salary as a full wage package.
Peeling businesses were developed in Poland, Russia, the Ukraine and a few of the Balkans countries. Afterwards, the emphasis was moved to Morocco because it offered the possibility of developing far larger businesses than in the other countries mentioned. Investment in first-class hygienic facilities, refrigeration rooms, air conditioning, laboratories and such were made possible by the size of the business in combination with the small number of businesses.
Heiploeg peels its brown shrimp in Morocco. A few large peeling plants are utilised for this purpose where peelers peel shrimp under hygienic circumstances. Heiploeg is also present here with its quality service. Heiploeg has its laboratory at one of the plants where samples are analysed from all batches of peeled products that are sent to the Netherlands. The moment the lorry arrives in the Netherlands, the microbiological results are known and the batches can be released for or excluded from certain end products. The travelling time is not, in any case, lost time.
This management system related to food safety is tested based on internationally applicable HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) standards and is certified by Lloyd's. More than a thousand peelers work at the current modern and large peeling plants at each plant. Only women peel; men are involved in the other processing aspects such as preserving, packaging and shipping. All members of staff have to undergo an annual medical examination to verify their suitability in relation to the type of work. All peelers are also checked daily in relation to the quality of their hands. Female peelers with injuries or other abnormalities are, of course, not allowed to peel. Washing, drying and disinfecting hands takes place under supervision. The handed in shrimp are automatically checked to see if there are shell remnants and/or other issues. Immediately after the checked peeled shrimp have been handed in, they are washed with refrigerated water in a drum. This is required, on the one hand, to ensure the fast refreezing of the shrimp and, on the other hand, to wash away bacteria. Next, the shrimp are preserved and sent to the Netherlands.
Peeling machines
As we have put out before brown shrimp are mainly peeled by hand. A lot of manual labour is involved and a large amount of food miles have to be considered. In the past decades many people have tried to develop a peeling machine for brown shrimp. The obvious advantages of machine peeling are the limited need for cheap labour, making peeling in the Netherlands possible again. Other advantages are the absence of hand contact and the possibility to peel at low temperatures. Unfortunately, reality learned that machine peeling also had a lot of disadvantages. Because of the difference in ‘peelability’ of the brown shrimp not every shrimp could be peeled mechanically. The yield of machine peeled shrimp was also significantly lower.Heidema en van der Ploeg machine peeled shrimp
At Heiploeg
we made a start with machine peeled brown shrimp in the summer of 2008 at the harbour of Lauwersoog. Now, Heiploeg has introduced the freshest
peeled brown shrimp without preservatives.
For
decades father Appie and son Klaas Kant worked on developing a peeling machine.
The new machine provides the same yield
as peeling by hand. The controls for
antennas and shells are no longer necessary.
At Heidema en Van der Ploeg 14 machines were taken into use in
2008. By the end of the year, 10 more
will be in place.
Heiploeg
hopes that in the future more machines will be taken into use. For the time being, a combination of peeling
in Morocco
and machine peeling will still be necessary.
