There are currently about 150 plants with a processing permit. These plants are supplied by fishing vessels ranging from large wetfish trawlers to small boats fishing with handline. Shrimp processing Fillet production After gutting and washing the fish is iced and kept in chilled store at sea and on shore to preserve raw material quality. In the freezing process the fish is first washed, headed and machine filleted. The fillets are trimmed, portioned, graded for size and packed according to specifications before being quick frozen.
Fish is processed immediately after gutting on board freezer trawlers.
In land based processing offcuts and trimmings are minced and blockfrozen. Heads are sometimes dried and the skin and skeleton with muscle remnants is processed into fishmeal. In frozen at sea processing, the heads, trimmings and offcuts are often frozen for further processing on land. Skin and skeleton is most often discarded. Heads or part of the heads have a limited market but are mostly discarded.