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in the US.“ It is important to note that before automation, the wild-caught shrimp industry was a challenging and miserable environment in Southern Louisiana. The introduction of automation did not just replace jobs; it significantly expanded the industry. Now, we find ourselves in a similar position with farm-raised shrimp. Over the past 25-to-30 years, this sector has grown from a cottage industry into a large global market generating around ten billion pounds annually. Despite its growth, the farm-raised shrimp industry remains highly fragmented and is still at a pre-industrialization phase. Over the last decade, we have been developing innovative technology and virtually reinvented and enhanced existing machinery. Our advancements enable us to peel shrimp to the quality of hand-peeled shrimp, including de-heading, vision grading, peeling, and deveining. However, with low labor costs around the world, we recognize the importance of maintaining high yield and quality to rival hand-peeled shrimp. Thus, we spent ten years inventing the right technology, operating a small-scale production facility to test and refine our ideas. As we speak, we have completed a technology roadmap sufficient to automate shrimp de-heading, peeling and vision grading and inspecting with the SMART Sorter, and we are beginning to commercialize these advancements all over the world, particularly in Ecuador and India,” he reveals.
From shrimp peelers, Laitram applied its technological know-how and innovative spirit to create other revolutionary products, such as the CoolSteam cooker.“ We became familiar with global markets in India, Vietnam, and other regions with relatively low labor costs through our cooking technology. To date, we have installed approximately 300 cookers, pasteurizers and dryers worldwide. This invention stemmed from a commonly observed problem, which is that when cooking at 100 degrees Celsius, the outer
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