Iberconsa to invest in new Argentina shrimp vessels, Namibia value-added hake output
Spanish vertically integrated seafood company Iberica de Congelados (Iberconsa) will invest up to €27 million in its Argentinian and Namibian operations, the company's CEO told Undercurrent News.
Following its private equity Portobello Capital majority stake acquisition in Iberconsa, the seafood company will carry out a “strong investment plan” to boost Argentina shrimp output and to enhance Namibia's plant capabilities in value-added production.
“We have an investment planned for 2016; we'll buy four new shrimp vessels in Argentina,” Iberconsa CEO Alberto Freire said. “The four-vessel acquisition will total up to €25 million.”
Each shrimp vessel has a catch capacity of about 1 000 metric tonnes per year, and Iberconsa expects an annual production of about 10 000 tonnes after adding the new vessels to its Argentine fleet.
“With this move, we want to become one of the leading fishing firms in Argentina, as we'll be among the top four Argentinian shrimp companies,” Freire said.
Pro-business measures announced by recently elected Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, such as the elimination of export taxes or the lifting of currency controls, are expected to increase exports and spur economic growth, which is seen by Freire as a “positive scenario” for Iberconsa's future operations in Argentina.
“The important thing now is that markets work, especially that the new government contains inflation,” Freire said.
Despite a decrease in Argentinian shrimp prices year-on-year, Freire said production costs due to inflation were the biggest challenge in Argentina this year.
On the other hand, China continues being the most important emerging market for Argentinian shrimp, Fernando Lago, sales director with Iberconsa, told Undercurrent.
“Today, China is the fastest-growing market. There are many interesting markets, but none of them grows at the same pace as China,” Lago said.
Meanwhile, Iberconsa continues renovations at the company's processing plant in Namibia with a new US$2 million investment, which will see an individually quick frozen line by April 2016, in order to increase its value-added hake output to 4 000 tonnes per year.
“We want to add more value to our products, to meet the demand from European countries such as Italy,” Freire said.
Undercurrent sources said recently hake buyers are dealing with a shortage of value-added products, driven by issues in the main processing hubs of Latin America and fishing operations in Africa.
The closure of Fripur accentuated scarce volumes of value-added hake caused by stricken fishing company Alpesca, with hake operations reportedly inoperative. In addition, fishing industry related strikes in Namibia is also hitting hake availability.
“Difficulties that faced Fripur have left a gap in the market that we hope to cover, to meet demand from our clients,” Freire said.
The company is also renovating its hake vessels in Namibia, which currently have a quota of 12 000 tonnes, distributed among its five wet-fish boats, and 15 000 tonnes for its two freezer vessels, Lago said at last year's Conxemar trade show in Vigo in October.
After its Portobello majority stake acquisition, Iberconsa top executives will remain in the company. Also, all pre-existing Iberconsa shareholders have expressed their willingness to stay in the company, Freire said.
“Shareholders have confidence in the future of the company,” he said.
Iberconsa has had “a strong growth” in catching, sourcing and processing throughout the last years, and, in principle, this will continue being the company's business strategy. But with Portobello funds' support, Iberconsa is eyeing new investment projects, as it has more financial muscle, Freire said.
“We will analyse new investment alternatives, but the [Portobello] deal has been very recent, so we'll assess them in due course,” he said.
- undercurrentnews.com