By Ricardo Serra
LIMA (Reuters) - Peru, the world's No. 1 fishmeal producer, could boost its exports of the product by 10 percent in dollar terms this year, the general manager of a major Peruvian fishmeal producer said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, Samuel Dyer Coriat, general manager of Corporacin Pesquera Inca (Copeinca) COP.OL , gave no projected export dollar sales figures for Peru as a whole or his company in particular, but added he expected prices to be strong.
Last year, Peru's fishmeal exports totaled $1.335 billion, 1 percent less than in 2005, Foreign Trade Minister Mercedes Araoz said earlier this year.
"The price for fishmeal is going to be strong and will be maintained," Dyer said. "There is no reason why it (the price) should go down; world consumption is growing."
He cited aquaculture (fishing farms) as an important market, saying its demand for fishmeal was growing by 8 percent to 10 percent a year.
Peru accounts for about 30 percent of global fishmeal production.
While Copeinca is the country's No. 4 fishmeal company, it is the only Peruvian company in the sector to be traded abroad.
In January, it listed on the Oslo stock exchange.
Fishmeal, processed by Copeinca mainly from anchovies it catches in the Pacific, is a feed supplement high in protein and like soymeal, it can be used for livestock, including pork and poultry.
In 2006, Copeinca exported $92 million in fishmeal and fish oil exports, he said, without saying how much came from fishmeal alone.
By contrast, Peru's No. 1 fishmeal company, Tecnologica de Alimentos, exported $300 million in fishmeal last year, which could rise to $400 million in 2007, a senior executive of that company told Reuters on Monday during the Reuters summit.
Dyer said that Copeinca's 37-boat fleet would rise to 53 vessels after it completes due diligence to acquire local fisheries firms Fish Protein, Pesquera Ribar and Pacific Fishing Business in deals involving $105 million in cash and 6.2 million in stock shares.
In 2006, Peruvian fishing fleets as a whole caught about 5.8 million tonnes of anchovies. The year before, Peru's catch was 8.5 million tonnes of anchovy.
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