Thursday, Oct. 17, 10.10. a.m PET
Bucking the trend
One Peruvian seafood company, that differs from the rest in that it relies very little on anchovies, is Perupez.
With its own fleet of vessels, Perupez catches and processes a huge variety of fish and shellfish including giant squid, conger eel, octopus, silver smelt, Loligo squid, jack mackerel, mackerel, Mahi Mahi, hake, tuna, swordfish, shrimp, scallop, and the roe from flying fish, as well as a small volume of anchovies.
Speaking to Intrafish, Perupez commercial manager Humberto Olivera said his company is very careful to only target sustainable fisheries whilst still continuing to produce as wide a range of seafood products as possible.
The company recently relocated into a new state-of-the-art modern processing factory north of the fishing center of Paita where the 130 staff work in producing some 1,500 metric tons of frozen product per month.
"Almost all of this is for export," Olivera said, adding while the company has excellent markets in Spain, Italy, the United States, Japan, Korea and China, it is Thailand's ever increasing demand for giant squid currently providing a massive boost for many Peruvian seafood exporters at present.
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Thursday, Oct. 17, 9.10. a.m. PET
Time to 'get tough'
Alfonso Miranda Eyzaguire, executive President of fishing company Pezex, and ex vice minister for fisheries, said Peru's efforts to encourage increased human consumption of anchovies is being hampered by a lack of monitoring and control on smaller "informal" fishmeal companies who are not obeying the rules.
Eyzaguire is proud of the fact he was a founding member of the government body set up to tackle the lack of human consumption of anchovies in Peru in 2001.
This resulted in human consumption anchovy landings going from zero in 2002 to 120,000 metric tons in 2009.
"But unfortunately this figure has risen little since then. This is due to a variety of factors -- but not least that there has been little encouragement for fishermen to operate in the consumption-only anchovy fishery.
"And the situation has also not been helped by the more 'informal' and less regulated fishmeal operators buying anchovies from these vessels when this is illegal.
"The law clearly states that the artisanal fleet can only fish for anchovies if the catches are for human consumption -- but this means carrying ice on board, only being able to carry a smaller volume of fish each trip, and generally handling the catch with more care -- all tasks which these fishermen are not to keen to do, considering there will be very little price difference in anchovies caught for either system -- and this price problem is also something that needs to be addressed," he said.
"But there needs to be much greater control and enforcement to regulate this problem and force the artisanal fleet to not be allowed catch fish for industrial use, which will in turn result in increased landings for the human consumption sector," he told IntraFish.
An exclusive interview with Alfonso Miranda Eyzaguire will appear in the next issue of Fishing News International as part of a major feature on Peru's fishing industry.
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Thursday, Oct. 17, 8.15 a.m. PET
Helping kids eat fish
On the same theme as the previous report in this blog, the issue of making fish products look more visually appetizing for children is high on the agenda at Umi Foods, sister company to the larger Peruvian Coinrefri firm.
While Coinrefri concentrates on export of seafood products, Umi Foods is solely an import business and is latest 'find' is a range of Disney-themed fish nuggets, burgers, and even Mickey Mouse shaped fish bites.
Umi started to import these products from Argentina this month, where they have already been a big hit with the kids.
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Thursday, Oct. 17, 7.33 a.m. PET
Making seafood more attractive
One Peru-based company with offices in Miami has begun to look closer at how a species or product name can effect its sales success.
Altamar Foods buys a range of fresh fish species and scallops directly from sub-contracted Peruvian fishing vessels and processes them in its 150-metric tons per day capacity processing plant.
With its product range also including Mahi Mahi, silver smelts and giant squid, the company has healthy markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Dunial Garcia, the company's sales director for markets such as the United States, believes perhaps more thought needs to go into how products are named or titled, explaining a standard species of fish "is what it is..."
"Take giant squid for example -- a great product, tasty and looks nice when cooked and presented -- but who wants to eat a 'GIANT SQUID'? And what would your kids say if you said 'we're having a giant squid for dinner...' -- it's not exactly an appetizing description and it conjures up visions of a deep ocean dwelling aggressive and ugly sea monster or predator.
"We need to start looking at ways to present this fine source of seafood in a more attractive manner so that potential first time tasters of this species, particularly children, will be at least drawn in enough to give it a try," he told IntraFish.
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Thursday, Oct. 17, 7.05 a.m. PET
Small shrimp producer, but still playing the big export game
Ecuadorean farmed shrimp producers Rey Camaron has been enjoying brisk trade at the Expoalmenteria with several major Peruvian buyers making inquiries.
Although this seems a 'small' company in appearance, Rey Camaron, from the El Oro region of Ecuador, boasts an impressive 1,000-hectare farm producing some two million pounds of shrimp ( penaeus vannamei) every three months.
Carlos Caicedo, sales manager at the company, told IntraFish the company is busy looking for new buyers worldwide.
"While we currently export mainly to Chile and Columbia, we are in the process of being awarded authorization to begin shipping to the United States.
"We are also seeking to attain the required certification which will give us access to EU markets," he said.
Next month the company will attend the seafood show in Dalian, China, where it hopes to seal new export contracts to Vietnam and Thailand.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16, 4.00 p.m. PET
Export focus on the west, and the east...
Peruvian seafood processors and distributors Consorcio Industrial El Pacifico said it will continue to utilize its markets in Spain and Italy whilst all the time keeping a careful eye on the potential in Asia.
Susan Ballon Chirinos, general manager at the company, told IntraFish while the company is currently enjoying good demand on the international market for its products, it is also learning some nations prefer species others may not.
This, she explained, can be seen in the fact that Spain, Italy and the Ukraine were leading markets for them for giant squid and anchovies products, but that other markets in Japan, Korea and Brazil favor octopus products and Mahi Mahi fillets.
Established in 1997 in Southern Peru, the 100-strong staffed Consorcio Industrial El Pacifico made the long journey to exhibit at the Brussels ESE seafood show earlier this year and they report that this venture secured many new orders, and increases on existing ones, in the European marketplace in particular.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16, 3.00 p.m. PET
Big players
Among the 'big hitters' at this year's Expoalmenteria, few could boast of the same resources of the Pesquera Diamante company.
In an interview with IntraFish, company R&D Manager Karem Benavides explained what goes into making this a $250 million per year turnover operation.
"Our eight factories along the coast of Peru are supplied by our own fleet of some 45 vessels who provide us with anchovies, Mahi Mahi, mackerel and giant squid, which we process and export all over the world," she said.
This fleet has an overall catching capacity of 16,000 metric tons.
As is Peruvian fishing tradition, the company leans heavily on its fishmeal and fish oil operations, but also continues to diversify and develop its human consumption seafood markets.
But with demand for anchovies for human consumption increasing, the company has begun buying fresh anchovy from smaller fishing vessels to cater for its processing of anchovy to meet market consumer demand.
All of the company's eight processing plants are fishmeal producers, while two of them are also seafood product processors and one is also a dedicated cannery.
Pesquera Diamente produce every year some 200,000 metric tons of fishmeal, 16,000 metric tons of fish oil and, with its seafood production steadily growing, produce 32,000 metric tons per annum in this sector.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2.00 p.m. PET
Keeping the family happy
Peruvian seafood producers and exporters Produmar isn't just working hard to get its brands of giant squid, octopus and other fish products recognized on the international markets, but they also want to get the message across about how they do business.
A vertically integrated organization, the company, which is located near Paita at the heart of the fishing industry, is very proud of its 'community' style of operating, where all staff are more than simply just employees but are made feel part of a family.
As well as ensuring that all staff are paid well above minimum wage and that there are no poorly paid part timers, everyone who works at the modern Produmar facility receive free health care, heavily subsided meals in the factory's high quality canteen, an on-site grocery shop for employees to buy food for their families at greatly reduced rates, and even a factory crèche where the children of employees receive full education while their parents are working in the factory.
This, said General Manager Jorge Talavera Rivero, represents a very important strategy for Produmar.
"We strongly believe in building from the ground up and creating a strong community mindset -- we go to great lengths to ensure that our staff, and their families, are well cared for. And this attitude spreads in how people do their work and the pride that they take in seeing that our high standard products go out to our customers in top quality condition. We are a family, and we want to succeed together,"he told IntraFish.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16, 12.00 p.m. PET
Keep a lid on it... an adaption of an existing idea to suit the seafood industry
Piura-based seafood company Sea Frost has come up with a novel idea of helping consumers get the best out of their products by supplying their cans of delicious tuna with a plastic lid (similar to that found on tubes of popular potato chip brand Pringles).
The company told IntraFish that this plastic lid means that once a can of tuna is opened, it need not be used all in one go, as is often the case, but that the plastic sealable lid means the remaining portion can be kept fresh and be stored for serving later, without any residual smell remaining in the family fridge.
"We're proud of the quality of our seafood products -- and we want our consumers to be able to enjoy our products in a way that is not just nourishing, but also cost efficient for households," a Sea Frost spokesman told IntraFish.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16 11.00 a.m. PET
Some like it hot....
In the run up to this week's Expoalmenteria Peru food and seafood show at Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru, leading fish and seafood producers the Austral Group invited IntraFish to see its operations in Piura and to sample some of its latest products.
As with many companies in Peru, a previous over reliance on the production of fishmeal and fish oil has seen greater effort going into diversification into human consumption utilization of the rich resource and variety of species Peru's waters have to offer.
The Austral Group is continuing its fishmeal operations as normal but has expanded its seafood product range to now include ready-to-cook portions of giant squid in rings, buttons or strips, and ready-to-serve canned chunks of skipjack tuna as well as tender strips of yellowfin tuna bellies.
In the case of anchovies, tinned ready-to-serve portions are, as one would expect, available in traditional salt water and in tomato sauce, but it their latest recipe product that is catching the eye, and the taste buds, as anchovies with a slight hint of hot chili is set to become a winner with fish consumers of all ages.
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Wednesday, Oct. 16, 10.00 a.m. PET
Myth busters
This year's Expoalmenteria event goes a long way in dispelling the myth Peru' fishing and processing industry is only focused on the production of fishmeal and fish oil.
The vast range of species of fish and shellfish available in the rich waters off the coast of Peru, as well as a near collapse of the anchovy, and thereby the fishmeal industry, in recent years has prompted Peru's big fishing companies to begin to diversify into the equally lucrative seafood processing and export sectors.
Giant squid, octopus, Mahi Mahi, swordfish, herring, tuna, mackerel, jack mackerel, silver smelt, flying fish, scallops are but a few of the high quality seafood range that Peru is now exporting to Spain, Italy, the United States, Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, and throughout Latin America.
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