A case study of obstacles and enablers for green innovation within the fish processing equipment industry

• Seven companies producing fish processing equipment participated in the case study.
• Obstacles and enablers for green innovation within the industry were identified.
• The study shows how fish processing equipment is affecting the seafood value chain.
• Fish processing equipment industry lack feedback on environmental performance.
• Requirements were found to be the main driver for green innovation.

The fish processing industry is currently shifting from being heavily manual labor-based into automation of most of the operations along the processing line. This paper reports on a case study of fish processing equipment-producing companies and seeks to investigate how green innovation can be integrated within the activities of the companies to secure sustainable fish processing in the future. Although the companies studied were all found to be involved with innovation, none of them were working with green innovations. This paper suggests that smaller companies (such as small and medium sized enterprises) that supply to larger companies may lack feedback on environmental requirements of their products due to the perceived relative size of the contribution of their product to the overall environmental footprint of the end product of the consumer. Better and tougher environmental requirements on fish processing equipment from governmental agencies, as well as long term commitment between producer and end customers may be an effective way of sparking green innovation initiatives.