Two Peruvian companies have teamed up to create a new joint venture to up cold storage capacity and launch a line of value-added giant squid for the retail segment.
Called Fripusa, the venture is led by Jimmy Valdiviezo and has received $3.5 million in investment from its owners, the processor Seafrost and the fishing group and processor Industrial Pesquera Santa Monica
Fripusa has just built a new cold storage facility that will cover increasing demand from Paita-based frozen processors, Valdiviezo told Undercurrent News, speaking during the Expoalimentaria trade show currently taking place in Lima, Peru.
“The new facilities were created to cover Seafrost’s and Santa Monica storage’s needs and to provide a new service for other processors,” Valdiviezo said.
A processing line for value-added breaded seafood, mainly giant squid, could also be installed at Fripusa’s facilites in the near future, Clement Taudou, project manager at the venture, told Undercurrent during the trade show.
For now, the line will be tested at Seafrost’s facilities in Paita, Piura. Once the product gains traction in the domestic market, production will be adjusted to cover demand and start exports to other Latin American countries, Taudou said.
“We are eyeing to export to Colombia, Chile and Brazil, with a special focus in the last one, since it is a huge market and we already have permits to export there.”
The new value-added line is aimed at Peru’s growing middle-class households, which is increasingly turning to convenience products to save time, Taudou said.
“Value-added production is an interesting business here, since only two or three companies in Peru make these products,” he said.
Processing equipment for the new line will arrive from Europe by next week and initial production is expected to start by end of September, so Fripusa can have its own brand in Peru’s stores in October, according to
undercurrentnews.com
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Published: 8/29/2014