Gamma-A adapts to the demands of new clients
Greater complexity characterises markets today Smoked and canned Riga sprats are one of the best-know seafood products to come out of Latvia. To be sure they were most famous in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, but now manufacturers are successfully introducing the product to markets that have hitherto not been exposed to them.
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prats are synonymous with Riga and the Latvian canning industry. Smoked Riga sprats in oil are a delicacy that is still highly prized in many Eastern European and Central Asian countries, where a taste for them was developed during Soviet times. The popularity of the product in these parts of the world was a boon for the canning industry in the years after independence when canned sprat manufacturers could count on a ready market for their products. In some ways this sowed the seeds for the restructuring in the sector, when some of the biggest individual markets (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus) closed down in 2014 as a result of political differences between Russia and the EU. Total exports of canned fish to these three countries slumped
from EUR37m in 2012 to virtually nil in 2016. On the other hand, the diaspora from post-Soviet Union countries provides a ready market for Riga sprats. The company is developing rapidly in countries like the US that have large populations originating in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. American retailers carry these products as they are popular with these ethnic groups. In addition, the exports are going to Canada, Columbia, Scandinavia, Africa, the Middle East, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia and New Zealand.
Glass jars and cans with transparent lids are trending The result has been a massive consolidation in the industry with
Igors Puzs, Senior Export Manager at Gamma-A.
the number of canneries shrinking dramatically. Of the ten or so that are left many had realised the risk of putting all their eggs in one basket and had begun diversifying into other products, and new
markets, and different packaging already before 2014. The company Gamma-A was established in 1995 and has been a regular exhibitor and visitor at international seafood trade fairs for a decade,
Smoked sprats being carefully placed in jars. The final product looks as pictured on the right and is very popular in many markets.
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