"Many of us spend time there at the exhibition. This is a key arena to meet our main collaborators and service companies, such as the shipyards we are working with, equipment suppliers, insurance companies, fuel suppliers and those involved in research and innovation in the seafood industry," said HB Grandi's marketing manager Brynjólfur Eyjólfsson.

"I'm not sure that people realise that the seafood business as we know it today is based on far more than pulling fish out of the sea, processing it and selling it. Icelandic fisheries is a knowledge-based industry on a world scale, and this is obvious when you visit an event such as the Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition that's being held right now in Kópavogur,' he said.

Mr Eyjólfsson said that the company received a group from the north of Iceland on Friday of more than 30 fisheries science students from the University of Akureyri. As well as a general introduction to HB Grandi and its activities, the group of promising students was taken on a tour of the production facility at Nordurgardur and the Ísbjörninn refrigerated cold store.

"With the students from Akureyri visiting HB Grandi, I worked out that there are 10 fishing science graduates among our staff and most of them graduated from the University at Akureyri," said Mr Eyjólfsson. "All of them are working in key positions and are in management roles. These are heads of departments, production managers, fleet managers, quality control managers and IT managers who have a common background in having graduated in fishing science. These are extremely valuable personnel and we will continue, as we have done in the past, the nurture this strong relationship with the University of Akureyri."