Grupo Solimeno, a diversified fishing firm based in Mar del Plata, Argentina, has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Gava Foods.
Solimeno operates 13 vessels, including three onboard trawlers, three wetfish trawlers, five freezer-beam trawlers, and two squid-jiggers. It recently added the new-builds Luigi and Anita, which have become the two largest vessels in the company’s fleet.
The fleet is large and diverse enough to provide year-round supply for the company’s two seafood-processing facilities in Mar del Plata: the Planta Irala facility – which fillets and freezes whiting – and the 20,000-square-meter Planta Mare facility – which has two parallel lines for wash-cutting, packing, and freezing fish; a separate line for ring squid; three lines for breading; and a connected cold storage facility. The company produces 30,000 metric tons of seafood products annually, with the bulk comprised of whiting, ilex squid, and red shrimp. It has 850 employees.
Green Cove Springs, Florida, U.S.A.-based Gava Foods, which began in Montevideo, Uruguay, offloads hake from domestic and Spanish fleets and processes and ships fillets and steaks for retail and foodservice in the U.K. and U.S. It has also branched into Ecuadorian shrimp farming and the distribution of Ecuadorian and Panamanian shrimp. The new agreement with Solimeno sees the firm become Solimeno's exclusive importer for the U.S. market of whiting and shrimp products.
“Solimeno is one of Argentina's main seafood producers and exporters, and we have been working with them on their exports to Europe for many years,” Gava Foods CEO Jorge Azar told SeafoodSource. “Through the years of sales in Europe, we have identified that Solimeno has the number-one recognized quality in Argentina, which is sold as a premium brand in the E.U.”
Solimeno’s first products began arriving at Gava Foods’ cold storage facility in the U.S. state of New Jersey in August, and the agreement will involve ...
