Helidon Rruga, managing director of Koral, one of the biggest seafood processors in Albania.
The fish processing company Koral is among the biggest players on the Albanian market. Relying both on domestic as well as imported raw material Koral processes and packages fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods for the domestic market as well as for exports.
Koral was established in 1994 by Helidon Rruga, an entrepreneur, who saw an opportunity to start supplying the domestic market with fish and seafood products. In the years since then the company has started to ship its production abroad, particularly to Italy, but also to other European countries, and has increased the range of products on offer. Today the company can boast of a processing facility built in 2008 with an area of 6,000 sq. m and a storage space of 5,000 sq. m in Albania’s biggest port Durres, an hour’s drive west of the capital, Tirana. Koral also has a network of shops that distribute and sell the company’s products all over the country.
Frozen raw materials sourced from Asia, South America
Economic growth in Albania has averaged 2.9% per annum in the five years to 2014, according to the World Bank. This can be seen in the ever-increasing traffic on the roads, particularly in Tirana, as well as the increasing numbers of shops, travel agents, cafes, bars and restaurants. The growing economy is also reflected in the market for fish in Albania, where demand has been increasing year by year, according to Mr Rruga. This is met primarily from four sources: wild catch from domestic fishermen, farmed fish i.e. seabass and seabream, fresh fish imports from Greece and Italy, and finally imports of frozen seafood; shrimps from Ecuador and Panama, and squid, cuttlefish and octopus from India and China. Koral works primarily with frozen seafood from Asia, but also obtains raw material from the Southwest Atlantic with the exception of European hake (Merluccius merluccius), European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), deep-water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris), and mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis), which are caught in the Mediterranean. These species are largely supplied by the company’s own fleet.
Koral has five fishing vessels, four big and one small that are based in Durres. The vessels fish with bottom trawls in the Adriatic Sea and target demersal species: cephalopods like cuttlefish, squid, and octopus; different species of shrimp; and fish like mullet and hake. The fish is landed at the port in Durres and immediately transported to the factory a short distance away to be processed and packaged. The proximity of the factory to the port means that the raw material is absolutely fresh when it enters the processing facility resulting in a high quality final product. However, fish caught in Albania and processed by the company is usually not more than 5% of the total volume that goes through the factory, the bulk of the raw material that is processed is imported. These imports are mainly from the Southwest Atlantic and include frozen squid and shrimp which are repackaged or used to make battered and breaded products that can be easily prepared in the oven or microwave.
Products distributed over entire country
In the factory much of the work is done by hand. Frozen seafood is thawed in large tubs but then is cleaned and cut up manually. The facility is equipped with two individually quick frozen (IQF) tunnel freezers that can rapidly freeze the product and glaze it if desired by the customer. Breaded products too are made and then frozen. Both the extent of the glaze and that of the breading can be adjusted to the customer’s requirements. The factory has a HACCP plan in place and is certified to the ISO9001 standard. On the domestic market Koral sells to hotels, restaurants and fishmongers, as well as distributors. The latter buy fish and seafood from different sources including fishing vessels, fish farms, as well as processors like Koral, and if necessary package the seafood before distributing it. Koral works with several distributors to ensure the country-wide distribution of its products.
While the domestic market is significantly more important for the company than the export one – 60% of the production is sold within Albania – overseas markets are substantial. Koral exports fresh and frozen products to Italy and Spain as well as small amounts to Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. The company’s exports to EU countries are exempt from duties if the products are of Albanian origin. Duties increase however if the raw material is imported or if the end product is highly value-added such as the breaded products. Of the export volume, frozen products form the overwhelming majority (more than nine tenths) of the production in terms of volume. This also partly explains the structure of the company’s exports. Fresh fish tends to be sold on the domestic market leaving little to be exported. To increase the number of foreign customers Mr Rruga has been visiting the Seafood Expo Global in Brussels. So far, however, he has been somewhat disappointed with the response to his product palette. I have now been at the Brussels seafood show three times, he says, but have not had any great success finding customers. On the other hand he found that the event was a useful source of suppliers of raw materials, the frozen squid, cuttle fish, octopus and shrimp that the company processes and packages. The show at Vigo, Conxemar, says Mr Rruga is a much more interesting event for me as Spanish vessels catch a lot of squid and shrimp from around the Falkland Islands and Argentina that is displayed at the Vigo show.
Fish and shellfish cultivation the latest goal
Recently Mr Rruga has decided to diversify his activities and looked at the potential of farming s
eafood. We are looking at the opportunities offered by farming seabass and seabream as well as by cultivating mussels in the Butrinti Lagoon, one of the best places to grow mussels in Albania. As a result of these deliberations the company applied for and received a license from the government which will allow it to commence the production of seabass and seabream very shortly. Later this year we will put the first cages into the water in Karaburuni Bay in Vlora towards the south of the country, says Mr Rruga, and we expect to have our first harvest in two years. The fingerlings will need to be sourced from outside the country and Mr Rruga is considering obtaining them either from Greece, Italy, or Turkey.
| Koral sh.p.k | |
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Autostrada Durres – Tirana Tel.: +355 5 22 36 800 Managing director: Mr Helidon Rruga | Products: Fresh and frozen fish and seafood Markets: Albania, Italy, Spain, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo Raw materials from: Argentina, China, and India among other countries Fleet: 5 vessels fishing the Adriatic Processing facilities: 6,000 sq. m Cold store: 5,000 sq. m |
Mussel cultivation in Albania is best known in the Butrinti Lagoon, where the high phytoplankton content of the water enables the mussels to grow rapidly with a good meat content. However, Butrinti is way to the south of the country and in the north other areas, such as Shengjin, have developed where producers are trying to farm mussels. For Koral however, the advantages of rapid growth, high meat content, and above all the A class waters in the lagoon outweighed the inconvenience of having to manage a production site located five hours away. Currently, Albanian mussels may not be exported to the EU as the country does not comply with the requirements laid down by the European Food and Veterinary Office, but Mr Rruga is hoping that this will change in the not so distant future opening up yet another opportunity.
