Tuesday, May 22, 2018

"Smart Containers Ready to Disrupt the Seafood Industry"

From BuzzOnEarth:

https://buzzonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/DNVGL_SEAtrue_shot4_v3-Large-1024x576-560x416.jpg/

The seafood industry must comply with increasingly strict demands from consumers on sustainable seafood production. For that reason, a group of graduates has spent their summer at DNV GL developing smart “robot containers” with cooling systems that can sail to ports without any human interaction.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicts that food production must increase by 70% to feed the world population in 2050. A sustainable increase in food production, especially proteins, is a necessity to maintain global development in line with United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Land-based agriculture is already pushing the limits of sustainability and requires a more sustainable approach to feed new generations, whereas the oceans hold a great deal of unused potential.

Seafood undoubtedly has some of the greatest potentials in terms of protein sources. Due to biological constraints and the sustainability of wild catch, the growth within wild captures will be minimal in the years to come. This implies that growth in the seafood sector must originate from the aquaculture industry. The production and transportation of seafood must seek innovative sustainable solutions to meet these growth ambitions.

Technological advances offer us unprecedented opportunities for efficient seafood production. Enhanced cooling systems for extended shelf life, autonomous vessels and big data can reduce costs, ensure higher product quality and better-informed consumers.

Introducing SEAtrue: a Smart Seafood Solution

SEAtrue is a supply chain for offshore distribution of aquaculture products. The consumer application TraceEat sends information about consumer preferences and enables the best possible use of resources. The seafood is transported in autonomous, smart “robot containers” which employ sophisticated cooling techniques to extend shelf life. SEAtrue is a cutting-edge supply chain system that allows for optimal distribution and lower emissions. Moreover, it adjusts production to meet demand and thereby enhances a sustainable aquaculture industry.

The self-propelled containers are released from the processing vessel, and either position themselves for pick-up by a designated container ship or sail directly to a nearby port. That way, transportation by sea becomes more effective and efficient and uses data from an autonomous fleet of container ships to determine the optimal routing to reach the consumer....MORE
FT Alphaville's May 22 Further Reading post which went with the "Seafood and disrupt it" construction because, apparently, the puns are irresistible when dealing with food stories.

Previously:
The Cattle Are Lowing
What's Mooving: Ag Stocks (CF; MOS; MON; MOO)

It was all explained in 2014's "Ironically, Milk Futures Are Not Very Liquid":
We don't have many posts* on the dairy business, every couple years or so I break out the "What's Mooving" headline but the business, at least the way (whey?) it's structured in the U.S. is tough to trade from a portfolio perspective. In addition it seems to foment (ferment?) some simply awful puns in folks who write about it.

The futures are currently in backwardation, not that anyone cares....
...Back in 2010 we had a post, "CME Group expands dairy complex with cheese futures" which I intro'd with:
Years ago I heard of a Chicago company that made a whey-based artificial cheese.

Apparently the operation was headed by a mad scientist type who had come up with the formula but had no marketing ability.

He was producing the stuff and not selling any, converting all the investors cash into this "analog" goop and storing it in Chicago area warehouses.

Then the Chernobyl reactor blew, the price of whey skyrocketed, I've no idea what the connection was, the company went broke and the receivers opened the warehouses to find tons of this 'cheeze', semi-molten in the summer heat.

That's what I thought of when I saw this story, tons of the stuff oozing out of bonded warehouses. No connection of course, just a visual....