Alliance Tuna International, a leading canned tuna manufacturer in the Philippines, will begin salmon processing operations at a new plant in General Santos later this year. The company hopes the addition of the plant will increase profits in 2010 and beyond.
"The processing plant will start in the second half and we plan to lease out the facilities first since we want to start right away," Alliance President Jonathan Dee told reporters at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting this week.
The venture will be collaborative, with Alliance being the majority stakeholder in the plant and partner Prime Foods New Zealand owning a minority share of the business.
The plant, which cost PHP 50 million (USD 1.03 million, EUR 741,000) to PHP 60 million (USD 1.24 million, EUR 890,000), aims to produce 2 tons of salmon a day that will be exported to Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.
Alliance’s current facilities, located in the Southern part of the Philippines, produced more than 30,000 tons of fish in 2006 and have a daily output of 120 metric tons of tuna . Alliance’s cannery produces two-piece and three-piece cans of tuna and can produce up to 200 cans per minute.
Alliance’s products are exported to more than 40 countries.
