The fish processing and seafood products plant “Koral Fish” in the town of Kavaja operates in the seafood processing sector for years now. The “Koral Fish “products include a wide range of national and imported products, fresh and frozen seafood in order to best service the needs of an ever growing costumer number. As a result of the government incentives and support for this sector, the fish processing plant has substantially expanded its activity, creating new jobs and employing new state-of-the-art technology, giving the company a competitive edge in the market.
Prime Minister Edi Rama visited the fish and seafood processing plant “Koral Fish”, which, thanks to expansion of its processing activity, has managed to export up to 1 thousand tons of fish to Italy and Spain.
“We have made an investment in cooperation with the Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (ARDA) and we project to increase exports to around 1 thousand tons per year. This year, the procedures have been softened. The processed products are mainly bound for exports. We work with leading and very renowned Italian and Spanish companies. We have found that they are delighted with the conditions of our factory and the quality of our output,” Koral company administrator said.
“This year, Koral applied for four tunnel-type freezers and two centrifuge refrigerators. The company is currently in the investment implementation stage,” the head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (ARDA), Frida Krifca, said.
The company administrator also acknowledged that the government incentives have helped the company to substantially grow. “The incentives will help us to increase our fishing fleet. We have a fleet fishing mainly sardines and anchovies. Our fleet currently consists of nine fishing vessels, but we are considering plans to increase it,” he went on to say.
Prime Minister Edi Rama pledged that the government will continue to continue to support expansion of this sector, which has led to pay raise for fishery employees. “The export of fish and seafood products is growing considerably. We will continue to strongly support it because this sector holds an extraordinary potential which runs neck to neck with export of agricultural products. I am confident that this turn of Albanian economy, although gradually, will be associated with substantial increase of wages. Actually, you can see it for yourselves that, although salaries still fall short of our target, yet they are higher than a few years ago,” the Premier said.
The “Koral” administrator went on saying that the company expects to grow by over 300 new employees with expansion of its processing capacities, which will increase the annual turnover to EUR 20 million. “Finding the skilled labour force fit for the job remains a challenge. We are currently looking to hire 300 more employees and a lot more in January. We make available more buses to transport workers from the surrounding areas. We are currently building three other production lines and will soon build a refrigerating facility with an installed capacity of over 2 000 tons. We expect to increase the annual turnover from 15 to around EUR 20 million this year,” he noted.
