Brazilian tilapia producer Tilabras has appointed Jose Ricardo Casemiro as its new industrial manager.
Casemiro joins Tilabras from embattled rival GeneSeas, which filed for Chapter 11-style bankruptcy protection in October.
He spent close to six years at GeneSeas, where he first worked as production coordinator before moving to the role of production and operations and then operations manager.
Under Brazilian law, failing businesses such as GeneSeas are given time to reorganize, restructure and devise a plan to allow trading to continue. Failure to adhere to the plan or pay creditors under an agreed schedule can lead to a judge being requested to declare the company bankrupt.
While two potential unnamed buyers have been in the running to acquire GeneSeas, others may be put off by its debt burden, which may have grown since October, while the departure of staff trickling out the door since October is another hurdle to overcome.
GeneSeas suffered a drastic cut in orders from the foodservice sector during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, which was compounded by a slowdown in Brazilian consumer spending and inflationary pressures.
It also ran into difficulty after being battered by soaring feed costs and airfreight rates to the United States, its main export market.
Brazilian tilapia production doubled between 2014 and 2022, helped by the arrival of massive agricultural cooperatives backed by the firepower of earnings from poultry, pork, beef, and grain production.
The southern state of Parana is Brazil’s largest tilapia producing region. Production in 2022 ran close to 188,000 metric tons among total Brazilian production of 550,050 metric tons.
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