The James Hutton Institute at the Scottish Skipper Expo 2023

Uploaded on behalf of Phoebe Somervail

The James Hutton Institute will be attending the Scottish Skipper Expo at the P&J Live in Aberdeen on the 12th and 13th of May. The institute will be represented by members of the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences (SEGS) department who are working on an EU funded HORIZON 2020 project entitled “LOWINFOOD – Multi Actor Design of Low-Waste Food Value Supply Chains”.

The LOWINFOOD project aims to design low-waste food value chains through the demonstration of innovative solutions to reduce food loss and waste. You can read more about the project as a whole here or on their website –  https://lowinfood.eu/

The Hutton team leads the work package “Innovations to prevent and reduce fish losses and waste”. There are two key aims of this work package, firstly to identify hotspots of food waste generation along the fish supply chain and the scope for prevention and reduction through collaboration , and to present innovative solutions to supply chain stakeholders in Scotland. To execute this, the team are conducting interviews with stakeholders throughout the supply chain, from sea through to retail, and putting together a stakeholder dialogue to potentially match producers and users of waste. The second aim of the work package is to support the demonstration in the fish sector and market replication of one of the project partners, Leroma (https://leroma.de/main/index.html), a B2B digital marketplace that matches together suppliers of raw material and residuals with potential users.  LOWINFOOD will improve the app’s utility and user-friendliness and demonstrate its efficacy to reduce fish loss and waste. These activities are being replicated by the project partner iSuN in Germany. The project is also supported by SEDNA technologies, a Canadian company who developed a traceability software for shellfish.

JHI’s attendance at the Scottish Skipper Expo 2023 –

The event is hosted by The Skipper, a monthly publication advertised as “the leading marine media forum for coverage of all news and events within the fishing industry.” The Skipper's Expos have been held annually in Ireland since 2005, Scotland since 2011, and England since 2013. They are a great opportunity for those involved in the marine and fishing sector to network, conduct business and stay up to date with trends in the industry. To read more about the anticipation in the lead up to the event, see this article on The Skipper’s website -  https://theskipper.ie/aberdeen-prepares-to-host-the-uks-biggest-commercial-fishing-exhibition/

The purpose of the Hutton LOWINFOOD team’s attendance at the Expo is to continue their efforts to boost collaboration within the fish & seafood sector and to promote the adoption of innovations that could reduce fish losses and waste. The team also aim to showcase any relevant services and innovations that their stakeholder organisations are developing to reduce fish losses or waste and to match them with stakeholders attending the event who have the potential to make use of these tools.

Among others, the team will be showcasing the experience of the Icelandic Ocean Cluster (IOC), where industry and innovators successfully got together to work towards 100% use of fish resources. Or the efforts of Macduff Shellfish toward a more sustainable supply chain, such as preventing any shellfish waste going to landfill. In line with this, the Hutton LOWINFOOD team is supporting the efforts of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), also part of the stakeholder dialogue, to promote a collaborative experience similar to the IOC in Scotland. The team aim to identify other potential stakeholders from all stages of the supply chain, such as primary processors and fishmongers, to enhance the stakeholder dialogue.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are the views of the author(s), and not an official position of the institute or funder.