Sapmer To Operate 10 Purse Seiners In PNG Watersff
3 July 2013
La Reunion
French fishing group Sapmer predicts tuna to become the strength of its business after being granted ten licenses from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to fish for tuna in the Pacific Ocean.
The licenses will now allow Sapmer, headed by CEO Yannick Lauri and Harald Chabot de l’Allier, to develop its proposed plans to have ten more purse seiners fishing in the Pacific by 2018, taking its total fleet to 20 vessels.
The group, up and coming in the tuna industry, also started work at its new seafood processing plant and coldstore in Port Louis, Mauritius in early June, handling Indian Ocean tuna exported to Japan. Tuna Processing Services Indian Ocean (TPS IO) employs 46 staff who manually make the tuna into loins in the factory and will eventually process up to 80 tons of fish per day.
The new licenses for Pacific tuna fishing follow Sapmer’s announced plan to remove itself from the Paris Euronext exchange, an electronic stock exchange.
Instead, the company will list its newly created holding, Sapmer Holding in Hong Kong and Singapore, where it said in a recent newsletter: “It will be easier to recognize the value of the company on markets where fishing is regarded as an activity with a future.â€
Sapmer also jointly owns Mer des Mascareignes with IBL Seafood and Marine, a processing unit for quality frozen fish that has been in operation since 2008, contributing to its growing presence within the tuna market, with its work with yellowfin and albacore tuna.
While also catching other ocean species, Sapmer believes that it is tuna that will create its future as a key player in the seafood trade.
