Sea Harvest’s Exciting Expansion into Australia
Since our inception in 1964, we have been breaking down barriers in the South African industry while taking our products to various international markets. With an ever-expanding global footprint that includes the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Switzerland, we look to the future with excitement and with renewed vigour to bring the South African fishing industry to even more international markets.
One of the highlights of 2016 for us have been the Sea Harvest expansion into Australia with our managing stake in Mareterram – a vertically integrated agri-business listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. This exciting development forms part of our global growth strategy, and opens many new doors for our company to bring even more global renown to the South African fishing industry. Our managing stake sees us taking on an effective 56% of Mareterram, allowing us the freedom to steer this world-class company on the exciting course we have charted for them.
Mareterram brings a cutting-edge fleet of ten prawn trawlers to the table, and they are also the largest license holder in the Western Australian Shark Bay Prawn Managed Fishery. It catches and processes wild caught tiger and king prawns, and Mareterram has also attained Marine Stewardship council certification for sustainable fisheries, which falls easily in line with our extensive sustainability efforts and just further points to the great fit between the two companies.
Staying True to Our Roots
Even though we are always working towards achieving our globalisation plans, and furthering our global footprint, we are a South African company first and foremost. Supplying an income to over 2000 South African families, we take our corporate responsibility towards our employees, shareholders, customers, and the environment very seriously.
We own all our fishing vessels and processing facilities, and run our global operations from our head office in Cape Town. From here, we market and distribute our wide range of products to very diverse markets around the world. Our key species is the Cape hake, the firm and white-fleshed fish that has become sought after in both local and international markets. The Cape hake is caught off the west and south coasts of Southern Africa, where the unpolluted, nutrient-rich water of the cold Benguela current sweeps up from the Antarctic.
Taking the World by Storm
Our brand is already firmly established in many of the world’s largest markets, including Germany, Portugal, Italy, the Middle East, and Africa. We remain committed to meeting and satisfying customers’ needs, to ensure that the Cape hake is recognised as a premium fish species globally, and to keep our fishing practices in line with global sustainable fishery.
Even though we continue to base a substantial part of our operations from Southern Africa, we have recently expanded into Australia. Our controlling stake in Mareterram is closely aligned with our strategy to become a global vertically integrated agri-business. We look forward to what the future holds, and to taking our brand to even more as yet untapped and unexplored markets around the world.