Making a serious effort to build a brand

Özgür Aracioglu, seafood sales manager is justifiably proud of the most recent award the company’s seabass and seabream won from an international association of European chefs and sommeliers.

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Camli is part of the Yasar Group, a holding company with interests in a variety of industries including food and beverages, agriculture, paints, and paper. Within the group Camli is responsible for agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and feed. The company farms seabass, seabream and small quantities of meagre, which are mainly exported to markets in the EU.

This year the International Taste and Quality Institute (iTQi) based in Brussels, Belgium presented its Superior Taste Award to Camli’s flagship products, seabass and seabream. The products are evaluated by a panel of 15 judges selected from the most prestigious European culinary and sommelier associations. Camli has been producing farmed fish since 1985 and the award is a welcome acknowledgement of the taste and quality of the fish they produce.

Complete control contributes to quality

One way of managing this is to have complete control over the entire production process. In Camli’s case this is achieved thanks to complete integration. From broodstock to hatchery, nursery, grow-out cages, processing, and, last but not least, feed, all the stages of the production chain are carried out within the company so that it can control and monitor each step. In addition, the company is certified to the ISO14001 standard for environmental management and was among the first feed producers in Turkey to be certified to the Global G.A.P. standard.

A recent reorganisation within the company moved all the processing operations for protein foods under a sister company, Pinar Meat, leaving Camli to concentrate on selling fresh, whole round fish. The fish is sold overseas, and on the domestic market, as well as to Pinar Meat. The reorganisation exploits the long experience that Pinar Meat has in producing, marketing, and selling processed products, says Özgür Aracioglu, seafood sales manager at Camli. The reorganisation also streamlines operations over the group so that fish is treated the same way as other raw material outputs from the Camli agribusiness divisions, such as milk and turkey, which go on to be processed by other companies in the group.

Evaluating the demand for meagre

Domestic sales of fish amount to 30-35% of the total. Today the company is producing about 6,000 tonnes of whole round fish, a total that includes seabass and seabream and some very small quantities of meagre (Argyrosomus regius), perhaps 100 tonnes or so a year. Meagre is a native of the Mediterranean and is similar to seabass in appearance. It is farmed in a number of countries in the region including Spain, France, and Greece, though production volumes are modest at around 500 tonnes in each country. In Turkey too meagre is farmed, but the production volume is so small that it is grouped under “other” in the official statistics. Meagre is an excellent fish to eat, characterised by lean flesh despite a diet rich in fats. The meat is white with a firm texture and forms large flakes. The fish grows rapidly and is suited to the intensive production methods typical of commercial facilities. Despite these advantages production of meagre has yet to take off. The main problem seems to be that the fish is still not well known amongst consumers and thus there is little demand. The price for the fish has also been low, says Mr Aracioglu, because some producers put too many juveniles in the cages. We have therefore decided to start slowly with moderate production volumes to see how the market evolves. It seems promising as customers who have been introduced to the fish have been asking for it and by the end of the year the company should have a good idea as to which direction the market is moving.

Domestic sales go directly to the retail sector

Within Turkey Camli has good links to the retail sector and so the company does not make much use of wholesale markets. The company’s main customer is a big Istanbul distributor, who also owns a chain of supermarkets, has fish restaurants, and operates fish counters in other national supermarket chains. This is a model commonly followed among supermarkets in Turkey, where the fish counter is rented out to a company that specialises in running such counters. This distributor has some 60 to 70 counters. Camli has been working with this company for the last 15 years. In addition, Camli also sells fish, particularly seabass, directly to other retailers in Turkey such as Metro, Real and sometimes Carrefour. These sales to the retail chains the company would like to increase. In Metro for example Camli’s products are advertised in the catalogue, promotions are carried out, and there are activities to promote the product and the brand. In general, however, Camli wants to restrict its sales on the domestic market to 30-35% of production. Beyond that level the risks start to increase disproportionately. On the export market in contrast it is relatively easy to get credit insurance and if the economic conditions change in one country then sales can be redirected to another country, where prices are better. Sales are never curtailed completely to a market, but it is possible to make adjustments.

Turkish producers have been following developments in neighbouring Greece with keen interest sensing that the economic turmoil in the country may offer an opportunity. In each of the last two years Turkish companies have broken with the undisciplined behaviour of the past, where too much fish was put in the cages. With fewer juveniles in the cages the volume of fish available today is limited, yet demand is high, so prices have been good for the last two years. Currently Camli is concentrating on developing its brand. Fish after all is fish and with so many producers farming the same two species the only way for a company to distinguish itself is by branding. The company’s new packaging facility located at the coast close to the farming site will shortly be ready and each fish will be tagged with the Pinar brand. Branding the fish has become even more important considering the prize that the fish has received. The tag will complement the Superior Taste Award that has been given to the fish creating a clear association between the award and the brand.

Branding is only part of the overall strategy that Camli is following to create a long term interest in its fish among customers. We try to develop partnerships with our distributors, we try to work with exclusivity, meaning we work with one wholesaler in a country and they buy only from us in Turkey, and we try and develop our brand in partnership with them, explains Mr Aracioglu. The distributor will be the sole user of the brand in that country and so the stronger the brand the more power it will give the distributor. Ultimately, the idea is for the final customer to be aware of the brand. A strong brand will complement perfectly Camli’s now internationally acknowledged reputation for taste and quality.