Scheveningen, The Netherlands-based Marine Foods was founded in 1978 as a trading company for mackerel, sardines, and herring caught in the North Sea.
But as the company grew and catches fluctuated, Marine Foods sought more steady and lucrative business by becoming a global trading company specializing in pelagic fish. It now trades throughout Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and West Africa, Marine Foods Sales Manager Arjen Welsch told SeafoodSource at the 2019 Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium.
Welsch declined to quantify the company’s annual sales, but said the company has established a stable business even as the internet has made the seafood trading business more difficult through the wider dissemination of pricing information.
The key, Welsch said, is the reputation the company developed over more than 40 years in business.
“We rely on that history for our deep roster of contacts and that reputation for reliability,” he said. “Thanks to the internet, everyone knows prices, so we have moved into doing lots of volume with tiny margins – that’s how it works now. People do business with us because we are not too big, we provide a nice suite of services such as high-quality surveying and inspection services, and because everybody knows us.”
Marine Foods also counts on a supply of fish through its longstanding partnership with Makfroid SAS, the operator of France’s largest pelagic processing facility, located in Quimper, France. Marine Foods exports the mackerel, horse mackerel, and sardines produced at the plant.
And in 2009, Marine Foods became a major shareholder in Baarssen Fish Processing B.V., in Urk, The Netherlands, which processes, fillets, breads, and freezes flatfish including plaice, Dover sole, dab, lemon sole, and flounder.
“With those facilities, we can do custom processing for clients. We can bring fish to the factory, fillet it or make portions, freeze and glaze it,” Welsch said.
That diversification and expansion into processing has helped the company continue to succeed in rapidly changing times in the seafood trading sector, Welsch said.
“Over the years, the business has changed a lot,” he said. “You have to work hard to stay ahead and continue to be successful, and we have.”
