The Swiss company is prepared to buy a sea container or 15 to 16 tons of fish fillet per week for export mainly to the United States, the Aripaev business daily reported.
Each container would cost 1.2 million kroons, thus Estonian fisheries' yearly turnover would rise to more than 60 million kroons. Since Atlantic Pacific Seafood wants to buy fish from one partner, a consortium will be set up of AS Japs of Parnu, AS Peipsi Trade and AS Kallaste Kalur.
It appears from a report by Siegfried Bank, the German consultant which headed an Estonian delegation on its visit to 11 companies in Germany and Switzerland, that there is demand for Estonian fish, mainly fresh-water fish, in Europe, and the first contracts will be hopefully signed this fall.
Arved Soovik, director and owner of AS Japs, said there is interest in Estonian products in the West, but another factory would have to be built in order to meet the order.
Last year, Japs exported more than 70 million kroons' worth of its output, mainly fish fillet. AS Makrill Director Peeter Loim said the costs of shipping to the United States are only 0.07 to 0.08 kroons per kilogram, which cannot be considered an obstacle in exporting to the American market.
Valdur Noormagi, managing director of the Estonian Fisheries Union, which unites most fish processing industries, said that it is inevitable for small Estonian producers to unite, because the industries' capacity is too small for European Union's large orders.
Noormagi said there is a market for Estonian products in Germany and the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, above all in the Czech Republic. He said that the Chinese and African markets could also become alternatives to the Russian market which dropped off last year.
AS Makrill managed to sign contracts to the tune of 50 million kroons at the Brussels fair this year.
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