WALVIS BAY – Tunacor Fisheries and Corvima Fishing have diversified their business models by partnering and venturing into the processing and export of squid, also known as calamari, in their quest create more jobs and add value to the Namibian fishing industry.
This business venture saw the construction of a N$25 million calamari processing factory, Seafresh, which will create over 200 additional jobs for the company, whose workforce now stands at 2,000.
Seafresh will process squid from the Atlantic Ocean into calamari rings and tubes for both local consumption and export.
Tunacor’s managing director Peya Hitula during the official opening of the factory said they expect to process about 10 metric tons of calamari daily.
Apart from that, Tunacor also celebrated another milestone with the completion of a new jetty it constructed for N$35 million.
Hitula noted that both the construction of the squid factory and jetty was aimed at adding value to Namibian fish products.
“Apart from that, the jetty is an investment which will secure the company’s capabilities to cater for larger vessels and will be crucial for the latest addition of horse mackerel land-based value addition,” he said.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Bernhardt Esau said that the government welcomes such an initiative as it clearly shows that the Namibian fishing industry is in sync with the government’s call for Namibian companies to diversify from currently relying too much on mining and agriculture and even on fishing.
“We have enough fish resources in Namibia which can act as a magnet for factories and other infrastructure development, and hence attract fish from international waters, and other countries in order to add value locally, create jobs locally, and retain value locally. This factory is a testimony that our industry can indeed undertake global sourcing competitively. In this way, we will be able to relieve fishing pressure on our local stocks, which I highly recommend,” Esau said on Friday.