More tuna from El Salvador

The Spanish company Calvo Group has opened a major expansion to its tuna processing operation in El Salvador. It is a major source foreign investment in the country:

Grupo Calvo inaugurated new production lines yesterday in La Union Port, a project backed by a USD 2 million investment. Its new industrial enterprise, spanning 2,000 sqm, has the capacity to process up to 4,000 tonnes of a variety of products.

The factory has incorporated new machinery to process and can tuna loins, which will allow the company to increase its local supply as well as shipments to the European Union (EU), Central America, Brazil and Taiwan.

In total, Calvo has already invested around USD 140 million and will employ 1,500 fixed workers from La Union and adjacent municipalities.

At this time, it processes some 35,000 tonnes of tuna loins and high quality canned products in El Salvador, and that total will increase substantially thanks to the new investment.

In 2008, Calvo exported products from El Salvador worth USD 106 million, that is, 9.4 per cent more than in 2007, when it generated USD 96 million. In 2006 it exported USD 70 million worth of product, a figure 25 per cent lower than that registered in 2007, the company disclosed in Estrategia & Negocios.

Calvo set up in Punta Gorda, La Union, in September 2003, and carried out its first facility expansion in January 2006, once the packing plant became operational.