Etosha
Fishing this week celebrated the launch of four new products under its own, home-grown and 100% Namibian EFUTA brand.
These
include canned EFUTA Maasbanker in curry sauce, canned EFUTA Maasbanker mince
in tomato sauce as well as a new 20kg whole frozen horse mackerel box product. In
addition, the company for the first time will be canning imported pilchards under
its new EFUTA Pilchard brand. Well-known as the Namibian home of the revered
Lucky Star brand, Etosha Fishing is already canning imported pilchards for
Lucky Star and Glenryck South Africa.
At
the same occasion officiated by the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resource,
Hon Bernard Esau, the company celebrated the reflagging its refrigerated seawater
vessel, the Iona as a 100% Namibian-owned vessel. Etosha Fishing has made a
substantial investment in the conversion of the vessel to be able to land wet
horse mackerel for land-based processing in line with the company’s horse
mackerel quota.
Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon Bernard Esau raises the Namibian flag on the Iona vessel, while Etosha Fishing Board Chairperson Mr Johnny Nekwaya (middle) and Etosha Fishing Managing Director Mr Pieter Greeff look on.
In
2013 Etosha Fishing became the first fishing company to can locally caught
horse mackerel under its then newly established EFUTA Maasbanker brand. Since
the product’s introduction to the local retail market in 2014 sales have
increased nearly five-fold with a total of 4.7 million cans sold in 2016.
EFUTA
Maasbanker was originally born out of a joint venture agreement between Etosha
Fishing and Erongo Marine Enterprises in November 2013, which resulted in the initial
canning of 200 metric tonnes of locally caught horse mackerel, yielding a total of 13,000 trays, or just more than 150,000 cans.
The
new value addition venture was in direct response to an on-going appeal by the
Namibian Fisheries Ministry for employment creation and value addition in the
horse mackerel sector, which is in line with the Government’s NDP5 and Vision
2030 policy framework. The venture also allowed for a more sustainable
fisheries operation with secure, long term employment for more Namibians.
“The
project was driven by Minister Esau’s vision to put Namibia’s most abundant
fish resource in a can, offering the nation an affordable, nutritious meal from
the sea delivered in robust packaging that has a long shelf life. But to can
horse mackerel and think that your product will take a major share of the
market is nothing short of ambitious. We had to ensure that we introduce a
quality product,” said Greeff in a statement. He highlighted that EFUTA
Maasbanker was the first Namibian canned product to receive the Namibian
Standards Institution’s (NSI) Standard Mark of Conformity product endorsement.
It is also Halaal certified and carries the Team Namibia product mark.
“Exceptionally
low in cost, high in protein and especially rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, even
today EFUTA Maasbanker is the most affordable, nutritious and best quality meal
money can buy,” Greeff noted.
Since
Efuta Maasbanker’s introduction, Etosha Fishing has responded to market
research and feedback to optimise sales. The product was initially launched in
three flavours, namely tomato sauce, chilli and salt water – the latter being
discontinued in recent years due to poor sales. In 2015 the smaller 155g jitney
can was introduced.
Hon Bernard Esau, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, shares a proud moment with Etosha Fishing Board Chairperson Johnny Nekwaya (middle) and the company's Managing Director Mr Pieter Greeff.
“As
you well know, the past years have not been plain sailing in the pelagic
fishing industry due to a dwindling pilchard resource, which has been the
mainstay of Etosha Fishing’s business. However, we did not allow these
challenges to put our business on hold. We remained committed to aggressively
tackle our country’s development plans in support of value addition, job
creation and poverty reduction to ensure sustained economic growth at home,”
Etosha Fishing Board Chairperson Johnny Nekwaya said in a statement at the same
event.
Against
the backdrop of a dwindling pelagic resource in recent years and the subsequent
moratorium placed on pilchard catches, Etosha Fishing has imported in excess of
50,000 metric tons of frozen pilchards for processing on local soil since 2010
in order to sustain business. The company is also in final negotiations to
secure contracts to continue canning pilchards for Lucky Star and Glenryck
South Africa until the end of 2019.
“We
cannot allow Namibia’s only remaining cannery to close its doors. We had to
devise various plans and business strategies to ensure that our cannery remains
operational, even if it meant we only operate at a break-even level. If we had
to close down our cannery as a result of the moratorium on pilchard catches, it
would spell the end of Namibia’s pilchard industry. As you know Etosha
Fishing’s cannery is the only remaining cannery in Namibia. Restarting the
factory once our pilchard resource has recovered would be too costly,” Greeff
noted.
He
added that the company is extremely proud of the fact that despite the many
challenges, it has managed to not only diversify its EFUTA Maasbanker product
range, but also to add its own pilchard product to the EFUTA brand.