Myton Food Group, a food manufacturing supplier to the Morrisons supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, on August 1 unveiled the Falfish Freezing Centre. The largest facility of its type in the Britain, it can individually quick freeze up to 180 tons of sardines and other varieties of fish per day.
The new £12.8 million development at the Myton-owned Cornish fishing business Falfish, is the biggest and most advanced seafood freezing line in the UK with a freezing tunnel that can freeze 112,000 fish per hour – the equivalent of nine arctic truckloads per day.
Plans for the site began in 2021 when Morrisons acquired Falfish after being a trusted supplier for over 16 years. The opening of the facility represents the largest single investment made in Cornish shoresides in a generation with the Department
for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) providing £3.8 million of the funding through their UK Seafood Infrastructure Fund.
Morrisons prepares and makes more than half of all the fresh food sold in its stores, and the new site will allow for fish to be frozen and packed in just an hour. This means customers can enjoy a wider range of high-quality fish and shellfish available at its outlets and at Market Street counters.
Falfish shares Morrisons’ commitment to sustainable fishing, and the new freezing centre has an innovative hot gas defrost system and green refrigerant with zero global warming potential to ensure it is economical, environmentally friendly to run and helps the retailer o achieve its target of net zero operational emissions by 2035.
“Over 80 per cent of the fish and shellfish sold in Morrisons stores comes from our seafood operations in Cornwall, where we buy directly from local fishermen.” said Andrew Thornber, managing director of Myton Food Group. “Opening the UK’s largest fish freezing centre not only strengthens our position as one of Britain’s biggest food makers, but also significantly grows our seafood export business. We have been excited about this innovative project since acquiring Falfish in 2021, which makes such a positive difference to the local industry and community and provides a sustainable future – as well as the freshest fish for customers in Morrisons stores.”
Falfish operates from three sites in Redruth and Falmouth docks on the south Cornish coast and employs 150 skilled fish specialists. Eighty different species of fish are landed each day directly from 50 partner vessels in the Southwest as well as from UK Fish Auctions and third-party suppliers across Britain and from around the world.
