AN IMPRESSIVE artwork created by Bega Valley’s Indigenous youth will shortly be winging its way to Greenland’s Inuit community.
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The painting will adorn the side of the latest model of turbo dehydrator designed and produced by AKT International.
The Cobargo-based manufacturing company, which incorporates Pambula Engineering, has been in business for 35 years, developing large-scale dehydrators that produce marketable material from factory waste in a matter of seconds.
The latest model will be the fourth to be shipped to Greenland and will be operated by local Inuit people at the Royal Greenland Plant.
The aim of the dehydrator is to reduce the waste from their Arctic shrimp peeling plant and convert that waste material – for example shrimp heads, tails and shells - into nutritious marine flavours for food additives demanded by the European and American markets.
AKT International owner Joe Ruiz-Avila said without machines such as his company’s Ky4 Turbo, factory waste would be pumped into the fjords.
“The plant is located on the shores of Disko Bay - the same bay containing the glacier that many believed calved the iceberg that went on to be hit by the Titanic,” he said.
“Heads and shells from the shrimp plant are pumped into the fjord.
“It’s a major environmental problem and can create champagne-coloured icebergs.
“They may look pretty, but it’s pretty awful for the environment.”
Mr Ruiz-Avila said the flash dehydration process creates a powder from the waste material within “two to three seconds” that can then go on to be used as a flavouring and food additive.
He said he believed this new machine will be the first industrial dehydrator to use electrical power for dehydration rather than liquid or gas fuels – mainly due to the country’s hydro scheme and the use of melting snows has created the conditions that make electricity cheaper than the use of fuels.
“The gift [the artwork painted by Eden community youths] is a depiction of the feelings our first people have for their country and hopefully it will evoke solidarity with the Inuit of Greenland,” he said.
AKT International’s latest machine and the painting will be available for inspection by the public from 1pm on Wednesday, April 1, at Lot 404 McPherson Circuit, Pambula.