Bengaluru, India-based Captain Fresh has completed its acquisition of Spain-based tuna giant Frime.
Captain Fresh reached an agreement to purchase Frime in December 2025, and the company said the acquisition provides a “critical third pillar” to its scale, building on its existing suppliers of crustaceans and salmon. Captain Fresh said Frime’s position as a leading yellowfin tuna provider in Europe will give it access to the new species and builds on its acquisitions of CenSea, Ocean Garden, Senecrus, Ocean Edge, and Koral.
“Tuna ranks as the next most significant commercial category after crustaceans and salmon, with broad demand across retail and foodservice channels,” Captain Fresh CEO Utham Gowda said in a release. “With Frime, we enter tuna in a leadership position consistent with our approach in other categories.”
Captain Fresh said that by purchasing Frime, it both expands its multi-species portfolio and gains access to a processing stronghold in Europe. Frime has 21,600 square meters of production service and 20 production lines with an annual capacity of 15,000 metric tons (MT) of frozen product, 9,000 MT of fresh product, and 3,800 MT of preserved products. The company also recently invested EUR 50 million (USD 58 million) in its Barcelona, Spain-based production facilities that Captain Fresh said will integrate rapidly into its “global sourcing engine.”
“Frime has spent nearly five decades building a legacy in premium tuna and an infrastructure designed for uncompromising quality and sustainability,” Frime CEO Pablo Múgica said in a release. “Integrating with Captain Fresh gives us a clear path to global reach and a technology backbone to go further.”
Antarctica Advisors Managing Partner Ignacio Kleiman told SeafoodSource when the deal was first announced that his firm was the exclusive sell-side adviser to Frime and that it had been looking to capitalize on its post-Covid success. Frime President and Owner Salvador Ramon told SeafoodSource in 2024 the company had undergone rapid growth, growing from 10 people in 2000 to more than 700 at the time of the interview.
Captain Fresh said Ramon will continue to serve as the chair of Frime within the Captain Fresh group.
“This will ensure Frime’s deep customer relationships and market expertise are preserved while driving the group's forward momentum,” Captain Fresh said.
Gowda said the acquisition will serve as a “strategic flywheel” for Captain Fresh by bringing together three of the largest seafood categories on to one platform.
“We can scale Frime’s tuna through our U.S. network while simultaneously introducing our crustacean (shrimp, lobsters) and salmon portfolio deeper into Southern Europe,” Gowda said. “This multiplies customer share without incremental infrastructure, speeds up product innovation, and unlocks synergies across the Captain Fresh group ecosystem.”
The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.
