TURKEY
Kopuzmar seeks further certiďŹ cations
Renewed focus on quality to ward of competitors Kopuzmar, a member of Ugurlu Grup, was established in 1991, but operations actually started ďŹ ve years earlier when the company put 600 gilthead seabream juveniles in cages in the sea. Since then the company has grown signiďŹ cantly, producing juveniles and ďŹ sh feed, farming seabream and seabass, and processing ďŹ sh in to value added products.
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ost exporting companies in the Turkish fish farming sector farm seabass and seabream, process the fish and export it fresh or frozen. The degree of processing varies from graded whole round fish to highly value added products. Companies are aware that whole round, or even gutted seabass and seabream runs the risk of becoming a commodity and are making efforts to distinguish their product from their competitors. Some however are investing in greater value addition, offering their customers a customised product and a service that is more expensive and more difficult to replace.
New owners, new priorities Among the exponents of the latter approach is Kopuzmar, a company that produces a number of highly value-added products for export to the EU. These products are based primarily on seabass, seabream, meagre, and trout of which the company farms the first three, while the latter are obtained from the market. The company’s interest in value addition goes back several years when it took over the clients of another company that was doing similar products, but that went into receivership. www.eurofishmagazine.com
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From left, Ozan KĂśseoglu, QA supervisor; Serdar Cenk Akarlar, plant director; Ismet Sanli, production manager; Ahmet Baspehlivan, purchasing manager; Mustafa Ipek, HR manager
In 2013 Kopuzmar underwent a change of ownership as a private equity company took a majority stake in the firm. The new ownership has meant changes in staffing as some people left and others were hired, but the company retained its core of highly experienced staff, says Serdar Cenk Akarlar, the plant director, and himself one of the newly hired experts. The new owners have devised a new strategy for the company which will prioritise quality, freshness, traceability, as well as environmental and social responsibility. Realising the strategy will
call for the implementation of new systems and standards and the company will be seeking new customers particularly outside Europe. We have to reposition ourselves on the market, find different segments, and get better at retaining our customers. Among the changes the company is looking at is to have only one customer for each product segment to reduce the risk of offering the same product to different customers at different prices. More production under private labels is also foreseen and the company will also invest more in trying to build a market in the United States for its products.
Farm production capacity can increase Kopuzmar has its own cages with fish, but this is not always enough to supply its customers. In such instances the company will buy the fish from its subcontractors. This is also the case if the company has the fish, but they are the wrong sizes. Externallysourced fish however typically accounts for not more than 10 of the production. As Mr Akarlar says, the company can expand the number of cages on its site if necessary, because it has the space, but for the moment it can generally manage with the Eurofish Magazine 5/ 2015
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