Major fish processing plant to be built in Liepāja

The fish processing company Syfud will invest up to €30 million in the construction of a new fish processing plant in the territory of the former Liepāja Fish canning factory.

The construction of the plant is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2022. The new plant will provide at least 500 jobs in the area, but as the plant develops, the number of employees could rise to 800, informed the Liepāja Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Board.

The local newspaper “Kurzemes Vārds” had found out earlier that the owner and true beneficiary of Syfud Ltd was a Lithuanian businessman with considerable experience in this sector.

In a statement to the media, the owner of Syfud Sigitas Ambrazevičius, who plans to operate in a new fish processing niche that is not present in Latvia yet, indicated that Syfud would not compete with local sellers of canned or frozen fish but make ready-for-consumption products, initially focusing on Norwegian salmon.

In the past, the main production of the factory consisted of a variety of fish preserves, but the new owner decided not to produce them by seeing a crab stick and vacuum-packed Norwegian farmed salmon fillets exported. Raw materials are intended to be purchased in Norway and the US explained the entrepreneur.

“We will export 90% of the production to Western Europe and leave 10% to the Baltic market,” Sigitas Ambrazevičius, owner of Syfud, told the media.

The factory plans to use advanced automated production technologies to ensure high productivity and therefore competitive wages for workers in the fisheries sector. There will be work for food technologists and manufacturing specialists and quality management specialists and trade organizers.

Several specialists needed at the plants have already been found in Lithuania, but most of the employees will be searched in and around Liepāja.

Syfud is a company registered in Latvia with Lithuanian capital, which purchased the former Liepājas fish canning plant from the liquidated Trasta Komercbanka in February this year. The first small-capacity production line is scheduled to launch this autumn, but full capacity production is scheduled to be ensured in autumn 2022.

"A company with experience in Lithuania in a specific but regional field. A good example is that you can also enter and fill in the currently missing food production in Liepaja from a neighbouring country," said Liepāja SEZ manager Jānis Lapiņš.

Over the past three years, 11 new plants have been built in Liepaja and several more plants are being built.

Source: eng.lsm.lv