Member of the board of PRFoods Indrek Kasela said that Trio is among Finland’s largest fish processors that has several clients PRFoods currently lacks, like the Stockmann retail chain. «They are very strong on the fresh fish market and also process shrimp that is something our portfolio did not have until now,» he said.
You have bought several companies, one after the other. Whence the capacity? Why now?
After selling the so-called old Premia, we concentrated on fish processing and going international. We gave the lion’s share of the proceeds from sale of the ice cream and frozen products branch to PRFoods’ shareholders but left ourselves with enough resources to develop the fish industry.
Our plans for fish have been international from day one. Hence the Scottish acquisition. Trio has been a partner for a long time, meaning it was the logical thing to do to merge with them.
PRFoods’ second quarter turnover showed impressive growth - nearly 34 percent. Your stock market announcement said it was caused by changing raw material prices. What will happen to fish prices in the near future according to your forecasts, will growth continue in Q3?
Fish prices have experienced a clear hike in the past 18 months - as is evident also in supermarkets. At the same time, we see the price of Norwegian salmon coming down, which is why we are expecting a far better result from the second half-year.