Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scrabster seafood firm snaps at new crab opportunity

Brown crab
Brown crab

A new crab processing factory is to be built at one of the premier shellfish landing ports in the UK.

Scrabster Seafoods, based at Scrabster harbour in Caithness, mostly exports white-fish to mainland Europe and the Far East.

But the company has identified an opportunity to diversify and take advantage of the 2,000 tonnes of crab landed by fishermen at the harbour every year.

It is investing around £330,000 in new plant and equipment to begin crab processing, supported by £119,832 from economic development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

The project is expected to create about 25 jobs at Scrabster over the next three years.

Family-owned Scrabster Seafoods, founded in 1968, currently employs about 25 people.

It is an importer, vessel sales agent, processor and exporter of white-fish and other seafood, handling around 4,000 tonnes annually.

The company also has an operation in Faroe and a sales office in France.

Its current brown crab trade sees the catch go directly from boats to lorries before being transported direct to the customer, mainly in European markets such as Spain and Portugal.

The new project will allow the firm to add value to the product before it is exported.

William Calder junior of Scrabster Seafoods said: “This will be a great benefit for the local fisherman and the community in terms of employment.

“It will allow fishermen to have greater choice in who they sell their catch to and a more convenient and flexible market, which can only be a good thing.

“Every other major shellfish port has a processing presence and given the healthy volumes of shellfish landed in Scrabster and the surrounding harbours in the county, we felt it was an ideal route for our company to take.”

HIE area manager Roy Kirk said: “Scrabster Seafoods has built up a well-deserved reputation for supplying markets across the world with quality fish and seafood from our northern seas.

“This diversification into crab processing should open up new markets to the company and ensure the business continues to grow for many more years to come. “