Image: Conarpesa / FIS

Shrimp - 'We cannot continue with obsolete and stupid policies'

Fernando Álvarez Castellano, another reference in the shrimp sector, spoke about the current situation of the markets and the changes that need to be made in the way of production to prevent the price of this product from continuing to fall. Concern about the delicate situation of several Spanish companies.

The president of the Conarpesa Group, Fernando Álvarez Castellano, also gave his opinion on the challenges that the market presents to shrimp entrepreneurs. Owner of a fleet made up of freshers and freezings, he is not worried about the price of fresh shrimp for the next season and sees in this product a ductility in line with new habits. However, for those frozen on board, he considers that it is necessary to change the way of treating him from the ship, which implies negotiations with unions and officials, which he hopes will be renewed in three months to be able to have the discussions and change in policies that today considers impossible and that, if it continues, it would drag us down to having a price for wild and natural shrimp frozen on board as low as that of vannamei.

Another issue that worries our interviewee is the delicate situation that some large Spanish companies are going through, which has led, for example, to the presence of demonstrations against the reduction of personnel, initially of about eighty-four people, at the door of the Conxemar fair.

“The ugliest thing we have seen during Conxemar was the picket they made at Pescanova's door, those things don't happen in Spain and what happens is not good,” Fernando Álvarez begins by saying.

REVISTA PUERTO: We have heard of complicated situations in several companies.

FERNANDO ÁLVAREZ: Exactly, and it is clear that there will be a succession of events that are not good at all, because in the end they affect us all because the banks get scared, they do not give financing to fishing, it could happen like years ago when fishing was bad word... That's why this type of thing happening with large companies is not right. We are economically solid, the partners in Spain too, it should not affect us, but it is still an alarm signal for the banks, in companies like ours in Spain that have pre-financing lines, the banks are beginning to question the balances, what next year will be like and so on. For me the worst thing I have seen at the fair was the Pescanova picket.

RP: How can we reverse the situation of low demand for fish and especially seafood?

FA: One thing is clear, consumption is changing, less and less whole food will be consumed. Mercadona and other stores are asking for the whole shrimp but that we make a slit up the entire back and remove the vein, crazy. But hey, people go to that and want easy peel and they want prawn with head, rudder and without shell in tails for Germany, it is clear that the trend is changing and we are going to that, to sell less and less whole and every time it goes away to sell more end-of-shelf product to the consumer.

Source: Conarpesa

RP: Conarpesa makes fresh and frozen, in fresh it may be easier to achieve, but in frozen how is it done?

FA: Yes, in fresh food it is something easy to achieve, in frozen food there will come a time, which is almost over, that fresh food will give more than frozen food, perhaps it could even be worth more because you don't have storage problems. reprocessing and it is much easier to take a fresh shrimp than to take a frozen shrimp on board and defrost it for processing, as is already being done. Wofco already does it, they process it in Vigo, they defrost the shrimp and put it in four-hundred-gram boxes with a lid so they can be easily opened.

RP: Do you have the costs to do a reprocessing in Spain? 

FA: They give because the customer who buys them is willing to pay that difference. Unfortunately we are going towards that, the problem we have is that we are the largest producers of wild shrimp worldwide and it is not easy to take 100 thousand tons of shrimp and do that type of reprocessing. They have asked me for some samples, but they ask me for 200 tons, how do I do it, how, when and in what way do I do it. Well, sooner or later, even if some refuse, we are going to have to start adapting with the freezers to this change, such as being able to bring in more queues, we have to facilitate this work, taking all the measures so that nothing is thrown into the sea, which of the heads becomes flour, there will be no choice. We have done tests with soup companies to make them with the heads of shellfish, we have to find that way. We have to stop with the stupidity of the 20 percent tail that we seem like kids in school and open our minds and think that we can bring, to put it foolishly, half tail and half whole and the heads already destined for a market that He will add them to a soup or whatever with an export price. But hey, the issue will be changing the heads of several.

Source: Conarpesa

RP: Sure, but that will involve negotiations with unions and officials.

FA: I am absolutely convinced that there will be a change in everything, Undersecretariat of Fisheries, ministries, everything will blow up and that with the people who come we will be able to have a working table to face these types of changes. Today it is impossible because there is a whole bidding in which personal issues are mixed in the middle, before we could bring 30 percent of queues and now 20 percent and that is because there is a personal issue with me and for a personal issue we are falling behind and they are passing us like a fallen wire. If they want to continue like this, let's continue, but in three months, in three months it will be over and we will have to hold a meeting with the unions.

RP: Are negotiations with the unions feasible?

FA: The SOMU is not going to care much about what you do on board, the plants are another thing. A review of agreements will have to be carried out at a minimum. We have to start to see that the ships are going to have to bring the products in another way, I would stop making the two kilo box. In fact, the two-kilo box is no longer sold; supermarkets semi-defrost them...

Source: Conarpesa

RP: Nobody is willing to spend 20 dollars on a family purchase.

FA: They don't spend it, but, also, who takes two kilos of shrimp home. Before they did it for the holidays, but if we want shrimp to be a daily consumption product as it is now in China, we have to start providing more fractionated packaging. If people want to pay for the quality of the frozen food on board, you also have to give it to them in installments. I'm not saying that we make four hundred gram boxes on ships because it is very difficult, but we have to find a way to make things easier and then do the rest on land.

>-- Source: Conarpesa

RP: How important is it to work on trade agreements that lower entry tariffs?

FA: Very important. The cost of shrimp from the boats with indirect expenses has been the same in dollars for twenty years. Putting the plant and administrative costs, everything, is 6 dollars and we are not selling for 6 dollars. It's not Argentina's fault, it's not the shrimp's fault, it's our fault. There is a very large volume, but if at that volume, you decompress a part to go to other markets, which is what they demand, which today have vannamei and we can enter with Argentine shrimp products, you decompress on one side and win on the other. But if we continue with obsolete, stupid and unreasoned policies at a dialogue table, next year it will be worth five and the following year it will be worth four like the vannamei. If that's what we want to do, we'll get there.

RP: Is China demanding these changes to the product or can the whole thing still work?

FA: China can still function because culinary wise they are introducing a middle class that did not exist, they are eating whole shrimp like we did thirty years ago, but they are going to go where we are all going and they are going very fast. It's like artificial intelligence, they are going to evolve much easier than we did, they travel to the world, they see what there is and they are going to go to the manufactured products that are in demand at this moment in Europe, ready to eat. . While we continue freezing everything on board and we believe that making products does not make sense and at fairs you see it everywhere, well that's what it's like. In what way, how to achieve it, how to incentivize... That is what the government is for, it should give a refund to those who make a product and to those who send the entire product, no, those who make a product must be rewarded, today instead of rewarding they are punished.

Auhtor: Karina Fernández | Revista Puerto (Traslated from the original in Spanish)

Related News:

• Lafuente Matos, Shrimp: ´It will be renegotiated downwards or we will have to stop working´
  

• Custom fees: ´At least Argentine shrimp must be equated with Vannamei´
  

• Shrimp: 'The problem is in Spain'
  

• Mercadona sells shrimp per unit and hoteliers look for substitutes

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