FIS
By Analia Murias
September 17, 2012

The fishing season of the Pacific sardine will close in October with an estimated catch of 70,000 tonnes of this small pelagic in the Mexican Pacific Ocean.

If that forecast becomes true, two million boxes with 24 cans in each will be produced, which along with frozen sardines, will have a market value of MXN 400 million (USD 30.7 million).

According to César García Pérez, president of the Small Pelagic Product System Committee of Baja California Sur AC, about 500,000 tonnes of sardines are captured annually in the Mexican coasts.

Of this total, in the seas of Baja California Sur around 70,000 tonnes are captured with nine vessels of 120 tonne hold capacity in each of them. These sardines are processed and packed in the two companies based in South California, located in the ports of San Carlos and Adolfo López Mateos, the newspaper El Financiero reported.

At present, the canning firms San Carlos belonging to Pando Group, located in Puerto San Carlos, and Productos Pesqueros de Matancitas, belonging to Mareden Group, in Puerto Adolfo López Mateos, maintain a workforce of 1,200 direct jobs and over 4,000 indirect jobs.

These two companies deal with frozen sardine canning and channelling and fishmeal processing, and they distribute their products in the interior of Mexico.

Original source