RIGA - Liepaja Fish Cannery announced its plans to become one of the largest fish processing companies in Latvia through a 3.8 million lat (5.8 million euro) investment plan that it wanted to complete by the end of 2004.
Fish PK, which owns the cannery, said it wanted to eventually sell 3.5 million cans of fish a month.
Fish PK Chairman Igors Krupniks said the cannery was hoping to gain financial support from the SAPARD program or from the EU for the reconstruction of refrigerators, the packaging department and fish processing complex.
The owners of the cannery believe that it possesses all the necessary advantages to attract finance: 200-meter-long deep-water
wharfs and a partnership with AviaAvto SV, which distributes the cannery's output throughout the CIS. In addition, Fish PK has also signed a protocol of intention with a Swedish company on supplies and sales of production in the Scandinavia region.
In February the Kurzeme regional court declared Liepaja Fish Cannery insolvent.
The head of the Latvian Fisheries Association, Inarijs Voits, said that the project was unrealistic.
He said the investment was too large to be possible, as the maximum the cannery could hope for is 100,000 lats for the project it has in mind. He added that all the main fish processors have exposure to the Russian market, and all already buy raw material for the same prices and can offer for the same price.
What's more, a fall of prices in the CIS region is forecast for 2005, so the capacity of 3.5 million cans a month sounds unrealistic as well.
Krupniks said that infrastructure development already started this spring with an investment of 600,000 lats.
Fish PK consists of three companies - J. Obrazcovs Un Partneri, Kolumbija and Ronu 6 - all of which are owned by Russian citizens.
J. Obrazcovs Un Partneri manages the plant real estate, Ronu 6 processes fish and Kolumbija produces canned fish.
