“After that trip to India, I thought a lot about how to make Norwegian Salmon time- and cost-effective, and settled on the idea of a salmon vending machine.
Many distributors had shared a similar problem: Salmon is a luxury food that middle-class people wouldn’t buy. He told me that his inspiration to create a salmon ATM came during a business trip to India in 2009. At SalMar, Norway’s largest farmed salmon producer, he had worked in slaughtering, packaging, and many other positions before becoming Head of Sales in Asia. Mr Kumar says that he has been in the salmon industry his entire life. While it might not be perfect, the Norwegian salmon sold by Mr Kumar’s ATMs is likely to be far healthier and sustainable than most of what we eat.
However, after doing further due diligence on Seafood Watch, I find that “premium” farmed Norwegian salmon really is the gold standard when it comes to health and sustainability. I also come across articles pointing out the many health and ethical issues of both farmed and wild-caught salmon. I’ve never really thought of salmon as a health food, but a quick Google search reveals a BBC article extolling the many benefits of salmon, calling it a ‘superfood’. We put the nutrition facts for our salmon on the front of every ATM because we are proud of how healthy it is,” he explains. “ The motivation for the Norwegian Salmon ATM was to make Norwegian salmon time- and cost-effective for everyday people. He says: “Part of the reason why I made sure to show that my product is Norwegian salmon and not just any salmon is because Norway has such high standards for sustainability, health, and safety when it comes to the farmed salmon that it exports.” Mr Kumar is very proud of the product he sells. He is wearing a very comfortable looking button-down white shirt. He gives me a firm but cordial handshake across his desk before we sit down for our interview. Mr Kumar is quite a bit taller than me, probably around 185 CM. I am surprised to hear he is actually from Norway. I assumed that Mr Kumar was Singaporean and just using the Norwegian label for marketing. His walls are painted with three horizontal stripes of white, red, and blue, which represent the flag of his home country. His desk is covered with plastic replicas of the 200-gram salmon fillets that can be bought for $5.90 from any Norwegian Salmon ATM. She brings me to the office of Norwegian Salmon Pte Ltd’s founder and CEO-Mr Manish Kumar. When I walk into the large reception area, there is only one receptionist sitting behind a desk. As I approach the Jalan Mas Puteh office of Norwegian Salmon Pte Ltd, I assume I am going to hear some gimmicky pitch from a slick hustler. To be honest, selling salmon from a vending machine seems like an idea that Beavis and Butthead might come up with whilst high.
0 kommentar(er)
