Rabat – Sykes Seafood, a nearly 160-year-old British seafood wholesaler, has announced its plan to invest €40 million (MAD 424.4 million) in Morocco’s northern cities of Tangier and Fnideq. The seafood giant plans to build two new facilities for packaging and distribution operations.
Alongside the Dutch seafood operation Klaas Puul, the joint venture investment will bring new employment opportunities to Morocco and boost the economic relations between Morocco, the UK, and the EU.
Sykes acquired Klaas Puul in March 2020, making the Pan-European partnership an estimated €300 million (MAD 3.1 billion) business.
Currently, Klaas Puul has a large-scale factory operation in Tangier which serves as the company’s southernmost prawn peeling plant. The factory employs approximately 3,500 people.
The investments will fund the first factory, set to shell 7,000 tonnes of shrimp per year, in Tangier. As for the second factory in Fnideq, the 25,000 square meter property will allow the companies to shell, cook, and freeze shrimp bound for European and British consumption.
Klaas Puul specializes primarily in shrimps, prawns, and mussels while Sykes offers both saltwater and freshwater fish.
“On many species, this installation will allow us to produce products in the immediate vicinity of Europe, and considerably reduce shipping times,” a Sykes Seafood representative said in an interview with UnderCurrentNews.
“Shortening the food supply chain has been at the heart of our decision-making and our continued investment in Morocco. We consider Morocco as an essential advantage for us, offering our customers total security of supply”
The waters of Morocco’s Mediterannean Sea and Atlantic Ocean have served as favorable locations for domestic and foreign fishmongers as they are rich with sardines, molluscs, and other varieties of quality seafood.
In 2020, Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries noted a 7% in seafood product exports from Morocco. The main export for 2020 was canned sardines and the kingdom likely noted an increase in exports due to the increase in demand from Mauritania, the US, and Ghana, according to the ministry.
Read also: Morocco’s Fish Exports Record 7% Annual Increase as of September 2020
Judging from Sykes Seafood’s current projections, the Sykes-Puul factories should be operational within the next two years.
