Baby Marine (Eastern) Exports, a major producer of frozen head-on shrimps, is looking at value-addition in a big way by expanding its product base.

“Time has come to meet the burgeoning export demand with an expanded product portfolio in the form of value-added, ready-to-eat and pre-cooked seafood products. All these items will hit the overseas market in less than a year,” Alex K Thomas, Chief Strategy Officer, told BusinessLine during an interaction.

Asked whether the slowdown in Europe has affected the business, he said, “there was a slight impact but head-on shrimps seem to be an indispensable part of European cuisine.”

To enhance the production facilities, the company has opened a modern facility at Mandapam in Tamil Nadu at an investment of 32 crore.

With this new facility in place, he said the company has now four factories spread across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with a total production capacity of 150 tonnes per day.

With more than 40 years of experience in the field of marine exports, the company has built long-term relationships with world’s largest retailers such as Metro Cash & Carry of Germany, Carrefour, Sysco of US and Auchan of France, he said.

Apart from shrimps, the 450-crore company today caters to wide range of products comprising squids, cuttlefish, crabs and other fishes.

With latest processing technologies in place for frozen and cooked products, he said his company is confident of garnering a major share in ready-to-cook products from the overseas markets. With all the new facilities in place, he said his company is expecting a 20 per cent growth both in production and turnover.

To ensure short distance to production centres and fast processing, all the factories have been set up in close proximity to landing centres.

The company is depending on both wild catch and farm registered shrimps for raw material sourcing.