Royal Ocean Seafoods ordered CAD 20,000 (EUR 13,200) worth of Atlantic salmon from Oceanic Super Foods.
“We are writing this story to warn our fellow friends in the fishing industry about Oceanic Super Foods who has now scammed businesses for over CAD 30,000. The company is owned and run by David Brandal in the Kentville area, and we want to prevent this from happening to anyone else in this industry,” wrote the company in a post on Facebook.
As reported in CBC, Danish import and exporter Royal Ocean Seafoods, headed by Kyle Rogerson and Simon Bay told the publication: “We had some really nice feedback because we were exporting all the great seafood from Canada.”
They contacted the Novia Scotia-based Oceanic Super Foods run by David Brandal, who told them he could source about 2,270 kilograms of Atlantic salmon from New Brunswick. The company sent Brandal USD 20,000 but nothing turned up on May 14, 2018.
In March, Royal Ocean Seafoods wrote a Facebook post about their experience. Subsequently, an Amsterdam-based seaweed company called Seamore shared a similar story and posted it to the thread. In December 2018, the company’s founder Willem Sodderland alleges that he paid Brandal CAD 13,000 (EUR 8,500) for delivery for 450 kilograms of dulse for his company’s seaweed bacon for an order that never turned up.
Brandal told the publication that in the case of the salmon, the price of the fish jumped by several dollars a pound, making the deal impossible. A small claims court in Nova Scotia has issued a judgment against Brandal and Oceanic Superfoods for CAD 21,299.35. Brandal said he plans to pay back the money he owes, with interest, in early May.
“We haven’t received anything back yet. We are still at square one,” said Simon Bay in a call to SalmonBusiness. Bay will provide additional information at a later date.