The Thai-Malaysian Tropical seafood company has built a completely newly structured and innovative factory in the city of Hatyai, close to port of Songkla in Thailand. The new Thai seafood factory is part of the Tropical Group of companies with its headquarters in Penang, Malaysia. The new facility was opened this summer.
The new seafood processing plant involved an investment of USD 20 million of the group, and the new complex has a surface of 28000 sq.mtr. Through a large production area, and investment in the newest processing equipment, the daily seafood processing capacity has been increased from 180 M/t in the past, to now 300 M/T in the new plant. This dramatic increase in capacity has also led to an expansion of the workforce to 2300 employees.
Tropical Corporation has made quite large investments in their facility, which enables them to meet the requirements of even the world’s most demanding customers. For the new plant USD 10 million has been invested in latest technology machinery. Also all processes within the new facility have been improved and are quite innovative; new sanitation concepts, but also processing activities, which are deigned in accordance with the latest product safety and quality control requirements.
The plant is equipped with air-conditioning, which not only creates better hygienic conditions, but also improves labor circumstances and processing efficiency considerably.
One of Tropical’s strengths is that the company has an extensive experience in processing seafood exactly tailored to the requirements of each customer and market. A team of 26 qualified food technologists and staff personnel are managing the production of 2000 different recipes. With a well-equipped R&D department, the company is continuously working on new tastes of seafood for its customers all over the world.
Tropical has gained throughout its 30 years of existence a reputation of being one of Asia’s highest quality seafood processors. The product range consists out of tuna in cans and pouches, but also sardines, mackerel, clams, crabmeat, shrimps, squid and luxury pet food.
The global orientation of Tropical has led to five canneries spread around the world. Tropical Canning plants in Thailand and Malaysia, Pattani Food Industries in Thailand, as well as processing facilities in Chili and Australia.
Besides a global orientation, Tropical has also a strong fix on its processing efficiencies and costs. This is reflected in the fact that the group has diversified its activities transportation, label, printing, banking, property development and international trading.
Marketing, for the new plant and also for the other facilities, is done through the marketing office in Penang, Malaysia. Major export markets are the USA, Europe, Middle East and Australia, but also increasingly the domestic Asian markets.
With its new innovative Hatyai plant, Tropical believes it has taken another major step forward in tuna processing quality and efficiency. A new tuna pouch filling line and high-speed vacuum seamers from Spain are part of these investments.
