MAREL: A CONVINCING COMEBACK FOR VIV ASIA

The first VIV Asia exhibition held after the pandemic was highly successful in attracting visitors back to the event halls. Professionals from the poultry and meat industry resumed travelling to Bangkok, from countries as far away as Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Of course, there were also plenty of visitors from ‘nearby’ countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Bangla Desh, India, Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.



Impressive demonstrations
Overall, the ambience at Marel’s booth was pleasantly engaging and energetic. The ‘inspirational tasting’ offered by Marel's own kitchen at the stand tempted visitors to sample some typical chicken or duck snacks.

The central theme of the demo was saving labour with automation. From different perspectives, and supported by strong videos on the giant curved screen, Astrid, Maria and Hans informed the audience how a processing plant can automate various manual operations. Machines and software can replace repetitive human labour in areas such as evisceration, cut-up, and deboning, allowing employees to focus on other tasks and increasing overall productivity.

Launches
Marel's innovative products received a warm reception from the audience. Particularly, the revolutionary Nuova-i gained a lot of interest, just as it did at VIV Europe. Attendees were intrigued by its intelligence, the integrated SmartBase machine-health monitoring software, the convenient control via the HMI screen, and the self-adjusting settings based on flock characteristics.




The new I-Cut 145, aka the kakugiri machine, was specifically launched for East Asia at this exhibition. Kakugiri, which consists of leg meat cut into uniform cubes with or without skin, is a traditional Japanese delicacy. The I-Cut 145 is exceptional in its ability to execute this type of cut using just one machine.

Additional launches included a prototype setup of a Breast Meat Value Optimization system, which incorporated SystemFlex Distributor belts and IRIS FI visual inspection. The RevoBreader, which is part of Marel’s latest 1000 mm Convenience Food Line, was also introduced, while ATHENA, the new intelligent breast deboning solution was announced at an information wall.