February 7, 2019

New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke Inc., the parent company of Cooke Aquaculture, has completed the acquisition of Seajoy Seafood Corporation Group, one of the largest vertically-integrated shrimp farms in Latin America. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

With operations in Honduras and Nicaragua, Seajoy has 8,650 acres of shrimp farms producing Pacific white shrimp. It also owns a large-scale processing plant located in Choluteca, Honduras, and owns hatcheries, breeding programs, and cold storage facilities with the ability to store up to one million pounds of finished product. Through these assets, Seajoy produces a range of organic and value-added shrimp, including peeled and deveined, to butterfly shrimp, to fully cooked shrimp and skewers.

With a business that has activities along the entire supply chain, from “egg to plate”, Seajoy’s attention to environmentally and socially responsible seafood production has gained the company certification from the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA); 4-Star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP); EU Organic; the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC); SMETA; and the UK British Retail Consortium (BRC). Backed by these credentials, Seajoy sells its shrimp products to customers across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

“Seajoy is a world-leading shrimp producer utilizing the highest quality and food safety standards and newest available technology,’ said Glen Cooke, CEO, Cooke Inc. “This aligns perfectly with our existing aquaculture and wild seafood fishery divisions. We feel Seajoy’s entrepreneurial drive, industry knowledge and care for their communities has made them successful and a big reason why we feel this is an incredible cultural fit.”

Giant Shrimp Potential

Growing  at a CAGR of 6.2 percent, the global shrimp market is expected to reach a value of US$133.43 billion by 2025. In 2017 global production topped 9,061.6 kilo tons, and of this production, 56.2 percent was generated through aquaculture.

Within an industry poised for such growth, it is a strategic move by Cooke to establish a presence in Latin America, which the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) targeted as the region to see the fastest growth in per capita fish consumption over the next 10 years, in a four-part report issued last year.

Indeed, there is climbing demand in exports markets as well – as U.S. shrimp imports continue to rise, reflected in the numbers posted for January 2018 when imports reached 61,593 metric tons – a 21 percent jump over a year before.

“We founded Seajoy in Ecuador in 1979 just six years before the Cooke family started Cooke Aquaculture in New Brunswick in 1985,” said Peder Jacobson, former CEO of Seajoy. “Our families’ drive as pioneering entrepreneurs and our employees’ determination over the years has resulted in two successful independent seafood companies, and now I am extremely pleased to have Seajoy join the Cooke family of companies.”

-Lynda Kiernan