In addition to Eastern Europe’s potential as one of the world’s next big seafood markets, the region is once again becoming a major focus for processors.

Salmon, whitefish, surimi and pelagic processing has long had a stronghold in the region. But, with an aging population, rising wages and poor availability of raw material in China, whitefish processing in particular is now slated to see a revival in Eastern Europe.

There is also an increased demand for fresh fish in the European market and new technology is coming on board, which will enable processors in Europe to automate a number of processing steps that before needed a lot of workforce labor.

IntraFish’s