São Gonçalo do Amarante, in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, will have a cannery plant that by mid-2014 will process about 60 tonnes of fish per day.
The construction of this plant, whose foundation stone was laid on Monday, will require an investment of BRL 23 million (USD 10.1 million).
The canning plant will have a floor area of 10,000 square metres. It will be supplied with fish caught in the northeast zone, more precisely in the state of Ceará, in the northern region and even in Rio de Janeiro.
Traditionally, canning production has developed in the southern and southeastern regions of the country but it is now intended to take advantage of the close distance to the port of Pecém, one of the largest ones in Brazil, which is strategically located and in the proximity to the US and Europe.
The plant will prepare canned fish in tomato sauce and in soybean oil, among other presentations, and will contribute to the creation of about 550 direct jobs and hundreds of indirect ones.
The ceremony that marked the start of construction was attended by the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA), Eduardo Lopes; and by the prefect of São Gonçalo do Amarante, Cláudio Pinho, among other authorities.
The new canning firm is the result of a partnership between R&B Aquicultura (fish and shellfish) and Crusoe Foods do Brasil, a company of the Spanish group Jealsa.
The minister noted that the presence of foreign researchers in this project is not a coincidence.
“They decided to invest in São Gonçalo do Amarante first because they feel confident. And then, because they perceive that Brazil has all the conditions for entrepreneurship to grow,” Lopes stated.
Max Mapurunga, R&B Aquicultura CEO and president, explained that the Spanish side will invest BRL 20 million (USD 8.8 million) and the rest will be provided by the firm from Ceará.
As reported by the MPA, it is expected that the new canning plant can produce some eight million cans of sardines and tuna monthly. Daily, it will demand 45 tonnes of sardines and 15 tonnes of tuna as raw material.
Sixty per cent of production will be marketed in the northeast region of the country.
Lopes stressed that the new company will strengthen the national fisheries sector and encourage the catch of tuna and tuna-like species in the coast.
Meanwhile, Mutsuo Asano Filho, MPA industrial fishing director, pointed out the new plant will encourage shipowners to acquire more modern and productive vessels.
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