The fishing company Kowalsky, from Itajaí, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, is exporting frozen fish to Tunisia. The company processes about 8,000 tons of fish per year.
There are fresh and frozen sardines, tuna, shark, monkfish, dolphinfish, croaker, mackerel, bumper, striped mullet and anchovies, distributed in the external and internal markets.
About 1,000 tons of frozen tuna have Tunisia as its destination. The product is bought by a French company called Jais, which has a factory unit in the Arab country. The fish are industrialized, transformed into preserves, and then sent to the French market.
“It was the French company that looked for us after hearing about our exports through the Bank of Brazil,” says one of the partner managers at the company, Evaldo Kowalsky. The company’s sales to Tunisia started about ten years ago.
Kowalsky also exports frozen tuna to Argentina, frozen monkfish to Spain, Italy and France, as well as fresh fish to the United States. The company should start selling fish also to Korea.
Exports, which started in 1978, normally represent 50% of Kowalsky’s production. At this moment, however, it is at about 40% due to the Brazilian real appreciation in relation to the American dollar.
Kowalsky works from the capture to the distribution of the fish. The fish are sold as a whole or in fillets, beheaded and eviscerated (disemboweled), in packages of 10 kg and 20 kg.
The company owns 13 vessels operating at high seas, between the frontiers of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul with Uruguay up to the city of Vitória, in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo.
At the unit in Itajaí there are five refrigerated chambers. The stocking capacity is of 7,000 tons. Kowalsky also produces ice. The production capacity is of 50 tons per day. There are 300 employees in the company.
Kowalsky is a family company. Today it is managed by Evaldo and José Francisco Kowalsky, sons of the founder, David Kowalsky. David started in the activity as an amateur fisherman, in São Francisco do Sul, neighboring city to Itajaí.
In 1960 he opened, together with his sons, a shop called Peixaria São Pedro, where he sold between 200 and 500 kilos of fish a day. Business grew and, in 1974 Kowalsky was founded, originated from the family’s previous activities in the sector.
As well as the unit in Santa Catarina, the company has offices in Santos, coastal city in São Paulo, and in Rio Grande, interior of the Rio Grande do Sul.
Contact
Kowalsky
Telephone: +55 (47) 341 0707
www.kowalsky.com.br
Anba – www.anba.com.br