Iberconsa Seafood Processing is the factory the multinational company from Vigo opened in Bouzas at the end of 2019. It is the first and currently the only processing facility in Europe, where it invested 15 million Euros. It has a production capacity of 15,000 tons per year on seven lines with special equipment for shrimp, fish and various fish. skin pack (vacuum packed in a tray) or marinated. The company is the world leader in frozen on board hake and Argentine shrimp, a platform that values catches to have a portfolio fully adapted to the retail market and add value to a scarce product such as wild fisheries. After all, here’s an example of a path taken over by a large part of the Spanish fish-processing industry (which includes mostly Galician and canned food) over the last decade: investment to innovate to grow, become competitive, and adapt to a consumer that is no longer the same as buying in bulk. In last decade, The sector invested 657 million euros in this transformation..
“Productivity and competitiveness have been increased thanks to innovations in technology, product quality, product diversification and innovation. It has succeeded in adapting to changes in value chains and taking advantage of opportunities arising from globalization and internationalization of value chains”. Fisheries Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee (Stecf) European Commission. This capital effort resulted in astronomical and record sales: € 6,991 million after a one-year increase of more than six points.
Data compiled by Brussels correspond to consolidated results presented in 2021 (for fiscal year 2019). Even in a pandemic – this was a very important activity, there was no production interruption – the sales of the main operators were higher than in the previous year and that is in 2022 They will break a mark that will lead the industry to easily exceed 8,000 million in revenue. In other words, this balance of the community studies department does not take into account the exponential growth of actors such as Profand (from 435 million to 800 million in the last financial year), Pescapuerta (to exceed 300 million), Iberconsa. Fandicosta or young man wofco In the opinion of the authors of the report, in addition to this effort in capital expenditures, the full professionalization of companies – they have a distinctly family-oriented nature – has been decisive (capital expenditures) and in search of new niches abroad. Greater focus on foreign markets with high value-added products has reduced the dependence on domestic demand. More, After the pandemic of species such as octopus, the very high prices of some products began to consume the market: consumers from other countries were willing to pay amounts that Spaniards would not have assumed as fish spending rates fell.
socioeconomic factor
“Currently – the continuation of the document – the processed seafood industry represents an engine for developing commercial innovations, increasing added value, creating job opportunities for the youngest and stabilizing the population in coastal areas”. Actually, most industry 23,800 direct jobs after adding the equivalent of 35 new workers per week. At the continental level, two out of every ten people working in this sector are in Galicia. “It is a key economic activity that acts as an engine for the entire fishing industry. […] and traditionally playing a fundamental role in the social development and cultural organization of coastal areas, a source of employment and income, especially for women”, complements Stecf.
Although concentration processes have reduced the number of companies to 584 (10% in a year), industry is still very small scale: Half of the companies that make it up have fewer than ten workers. not a negative element by itselfsince most small firms are committed to products prize –canned food is a clear indicator – but at the investment level it is a deterrent. In every situation, national industry has a hegemonic weight of 18% in Europefollowed by Italy, France and Germany from afar. In short, marine protein production creates more than 28,500 million euros a year and 110,000 full-time jobs on the continent.