Canadian salmon producer Cooke Inc has boosted its shrimp-farming portfolio with the acquisition of Belgian shrimp farmer and processor Morubel, its third such acquisition in three years.
Cooke acquired two shrimp farming operations in Latin America – Seajoy Seafood and Farallon Aquaculture de Nicaragua – in 2019. It also now owns 10.49 percent of Australia’s Tassal Group, which farms salmon and shrimp.
Founded in 1954, Morubel is a shrimp farmer and processor. It sells to retail, foodservice and food industry customers across Europe in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, and France. It was acquired by Bencis in 2014.
Its 14,000-sqm plant in Ostend, Belgium has a production capacity of 18,000 metric tonnes for frozen seafood, retail, and bulk packaging with opportunity for further growth.
“Morubel’s focus on developing sustainable, new added value products and continuously focusing on innovation was an attractive complement to our European seafood offerings,” says Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc.
“We’re very excited to welcome Morubel’s 100 employees to Cooke. The plant staff, sales and management are exceptional, and they have formed longstanding customer relationships by being a flexible and reliable supplier with consistently high quality and short delivery times.”
Dirk De Pandelaere, CEO of Morubel says the company’s values aligns with Cooke’s. “We see a lot of opportunities to expand our product line to sell additional Cooke products in European countries where Cooke is building its presence,” he said.
