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The national tuna stopped being a ‘commodity’
Posted On 24 Jun 2019
The innovation is not only in what goes next to the tuna in the can, the glass or in the containers of laminated metal (pouch).
An Ecuadorian company has also implemented a technological tool that allows the development of an industry that stopped producing only raw materials (loins or chunks) to offer products with high added value.
There is already a system that allows to predict the best destination of the raw material (the fish), in which final product it will be used and that has testing processes and quality protocols. It has a technological, productive and even market behavior component.
And it is well explained to Diario EXPRESO by the general manager of Tecopesca, based in Manta (Manabí), Ronald Aroca. “This tool works under its own mathematical algorithm, designed by our organization. It is an integration system that knows how the tuna has been transported, how it was stored, its cooking stage, its humidity and even how it was cleaned, what is removed and what is added “.
“All this has an integration and systematization. It is a tool made at home, by Ecuadorians, of intelligent planning, “he adds.
This implies knowing where the raw material was captured, in what fishing area, how it was transported, under what conditions. “So we can know the best destination of the tuna: if it is for a soup, or a product with ginger, a pouch, or for sandwiches,” Aroca details.
The president of the Ecuadorian Chamber of Tuna Industrialists and Processors (Ceipa), Gustavo Núñez Márquez, assures that the Ecuadorian industry is a pioneer in the export sector with added value.
And in the case of Asiservy, the company that manages, has canned tuna canned farmer type (with vegetables), Italian, peasant, pepper, jalapeño, Mediterranean, with rice with tenderloin, tuna or smoked.
Tecopesca, on the other hand, not only has tuna for human consumption, but also for cats and dogs. “It’s a combination of selected tuna, high in protein and fat.”
With its line of tinned onions and in glass containers; biche in glass containers; sweet and sour loins, with fine herbs, baked, burgers; fillet with laurel, basil, thyme and lemon, jalapeño, soy and ginger, chili, pepper, olives, coconut; in rolled metal cases (pouch) with product for athletes with various types of dressings, the company reaches new markets and regions, and also hopes to cross the seas.
“We are being well accepted in Colombia, in the Yumbo markets; there they ran out and we are sending more; our first course is national, plus Colombia, Peru, Argentina, but then we go to markets like the European one “.
Almost two decades ago, Star Kist, after reducing the tariff for entering the United States for tuna in rolled metal shells, began manufacturing them to take advantage of that advantage and today has varieties with chili, ‘hot buffalo’, ‘lemon pepper’ , ‘ranch’. And Real Industrial Business (Nirsa), Guayaquil, dabbled with its variety that is already known, encebollado en lata.
Conservas Isabel Ecuatoriana offers pickled tuna, with light mayonnaise, seafood rice, Californian, Mediterranean and Russian salads, hamburgers, meatballs. And Inepaca, one of the country’s flagship factories, has in its portfolio tuna canned with mushrooms in sunflower oil, with lemon juice, beans and corn, with vegetables, fine herbs, tuna.
POWER
Ecuador is the second tuna exporter, after Thailand. But it has a big difference: it is a country involved in sustainability plans.
