TURKEY
Investors fund further expansion in Agromey
Seabass production set to increase The Akel Group in Turkey is a major trader of agricultural products. Among the group companies is Agromey, a producer of seabass and seabream with its own feed manufacturing plant, on-growing sites for the ďŹ sh, processing and packaging facilities, as well as sales and marketing divisions that trade the ďŹ sh on markets within Turkey as well as around the world.
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oday Agromey is one of the biggest exporters of seabass and seabream with markets in Europe, Asia, and North America. The company has major expansion plans says Tolga Uruk, the marketing and sales director, which will be realised with the help of a USD40m injection of new capital from the parent Akel Group that was agreed on at the end of 2016. Some of this funding will go into an expansion of production capacity to 18,000 tonnes of fish by 2017, and to 20,000 tonnes by 2018. While the company’s production capacity is already significant, actual production has been lower as markets have been
subdued. Recently, however, says Mr Uruk, the export market has been increasing, more fish is being sold to western Europe, Russia, USA, and even the Middle East.
Emphasis on seabass Agromey is predominantly a producer of seabass. However, a couple of years ago a massive storm in the Aegean caused the company to lose almost 2,000 tonnes of market-sized seabass, a disruption in output from which the company is slowly recovering. The planned increase in capacity will result in an increase in seabass production that will ultimately reach
about 70 of the total in two years. Seabass is sold typically in the size range 400 to 600 g, a size the fish generally takes two years or more to achieve. In general, Agromey exports 80 of its production and these overseas markets determine the ratio of seabass and seabream that is produced. In the Netherlands, the company’s main market in Europe, there is a significant preference for seabass, which the company will be in a good position to accommodate with its increase in production. In Italy and Spain where the company also has markets, as well as in the US, it is seabass that is the most popular, while in the Middle East it is seabream. The
Dutch market is an important one for Agromey, so much so that a subsidiary, Agromey Holland BV, was established a few years ago that is responsible for sales and invoicing. The fish, all of it fresh, is sent from Agromey’s packaging facilities in Aydin and in Izmir in Turkey directly to the customers in the Netherlands. In contrast to markets in other parts of Europe, where whole round fish is the norm, Agromey’s customers in the Netherlands are mainly interested in processed fish – fillets in different formats and gutted fish. Europe is the main destination for Agromey’s fish followed by the Middle East and the US, and then Russia.
One of the company’s grading and packaging facilities is on board a vessel anchored off Karaburun, a natural reserve near Izmir. Eurofish Magazine 1 / 2017
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