Turkish producer Sagun Group completed construction of a 4,000 square meter processing and packaging plant in Izmir, which will be used for not only its core operations of seabass and seabream, but also for bluefin tuna.

The company has been ranching bluefin tuna for 15 years, but usually sells the whole fish to its Japanese partners. Now, Sagun plans to start adding value to the tuna at its new facility, which has freezing systems capable of reaching minus 70 degrees Celsius.

“We are going to start doing saku [loins] blocks for our Japanese and Korean customers,” Ogulcan Sagun, vice president of the company, told IntraFish.

Meanwhile, Sagun’s joint-venture feed factory with BioMar – which has a production capacity of 55,000 metric tons -- is going online within the next 10 days, he said at the Seafood Expo Global in Brussels last week.

The company also has a third project going to increase its bass and bream production. After moving its bluefin farms from Antalya to Izmir, Sagun turned these vacant licenses in Antalya into bass and bream farms.

“This will give us an additional production of around 2,000 metric tons,” said Sagun. “Also the fish grows very fast in Antalya, so we will keep investing in the area.”

Sagun’s overall production now is around 6,500 to 7,000 metric tons of seabass and seabream per year; 4,500 metric tons of rainbow trout; and around 1,500 to 2,000 metric tons of tuna.

At the beginning of the year, Sagun opened new storage and logistics hub in Breda in Holland, delivering its products to its French, German and English customers.

“Our customers keep asking for partial shipments… the world is globalizing and this is about giving better service to our clients,” Sagun said.

Fifteen Turkish companies exhibited at the Seafood Expo in Brussels this year, gathered under the banner of the Istanbul Exporters’ Association.

Although a decrease in general exports for several sectors was seen in 2015, seafood exports actually increased, according to Ahmet Tuncay Sagun (pictured left), president of Sagun and chairman of the Istanbul Exporters’ Association.

Turkey exports seafood to 85 countries nationwide with the EU and the United States as its most important markets.

In 2015, Turkey saw seafood exports climb to 122 million metric tons worth $689 million (€597.3 million) – “with its high export potential, Turkey’s target for 2023 is to reach $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion).”

“Turkey’s primary objective is to increase branded exports in the seafood sector and its export share in products with high added value,” said Sagun.

“Day by day production is increasing and the number integrated facilities are growing.  We also have the advantage of using Turkish Airlines’ strong network which is also growing day-by-day.”

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