There’s a trend that’s picking up steam in the seafood processing business, and PTC Germany is one of its leaders.
Processing is moving from China to Eastern Europe, with costs becoming closer aligned and retailers in search of better quality guarantees, according to PTC Purchase Manager Lars Sannen.
“Retails, supermarkets – the whole supply chain – they’re all looking for a producer which is closer to Europe, especially on a quality level,” Sannen said.
Founded in 2009, PTC Germany has now opened six processing facilities, including two in Germany, one in Turkey, one in Poland, one in Ukraine, and a brand new facility under construction in Serbia, which, when its four phases are complete, will include production capacity for value-added products, shrimp processing and a fish-smoking plant. Using state-of-the-art technology, the company is able to deliver both competitive prices and higher quality processing, Sannen said.
“The idea was to do everything differently – starting from sourcing the raw material, being processed in our own plant, with own machinery, people and quality systems,” he said. “Our emphasis is on quality. We put 100 percent effort in to make everything as good as possible. We accomplish that by controlling the whole supply chain, from raw material through to the finished product.”
In 2016, the company processed 40,000 metric tons of seafood, including scallops, tuna, cod, pollock, Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon, pike, perche, trout, seabass, seabream, shrimp and value-added products. Sannen said the factories are flexible enough to be able to accommodate almost any other type of seafood on request.
Currently, the company primarily serves the European market, but PTC was in attendance at the 2017 Seafood Expo North America / Seafood Processing North America event in Boston, Massachusetts from 19 to 21 March to “discover the American market,” Sannen said.
“The biggest reason we came to the show is to introduce ourselves to the American market,” Sannen said. “We have the knowledge, flexibility, and the will and capacity to continue to grow, and there’s no better place to do that than the U.S. market.”
