Erongo Marine Enterprises opens onshore processing plant at Walvis Bay

Erongo Marine Enterprises inaugurated its onshore processing plant at the Walvis Bay harbour on Wednesday.

Speaking during the inauguration, Erongo Marine Enterprises managing director, Martha Uumati said the onshore processing plant repackages 30 kilogramme (kg) cartons of horse mackerel into 10kg cartons.

Many vendors and small business owners buy horse mackerel in bulk in order to sell it on a smaller scale.

“There is a need on the market for the 10 kilogramme carton of horse mackerel as it would be much more affordable for someone who may not be able to afford the 30kg carton, which was the only one available to consumers before,” she said.

Uumati said another challenge with the 30kg carton was that it was hard for someone without transport to carry.

“However with the 10kg carton, that issue is now taken care of.”

So far, N$1.5 million has been invested in the operation which started in September, amongst others in labour and machinery. The investment is expected to increase to at least N$2.9 million by the end of 2018.

To date the onshore processing plant has processed a little over 974 metric tonnes (mt) out of the 3 407 mt required for the year 2018.

Uumati said job creation was also one of the main reasons for the establishment of the plant.

They started with 16 workers per shift, but this number was recently increased to 18 workers per shift for the two daily shifts, in order to increase daily output.

-Nampa/Reuters