Alliance Select Foods Int’l gets authority to tap Indonesia’s fishing grounds

MANILA, Philippines – The Indonesian tuna processing unit of Alliance Select Foods International has set up a new unit that recently obtained authority to tap Indonesia’s rich fishing grounds.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, Alliance said its Indonesian subsidiary PT International Alliance Food Indonesia (PTIAFI) had “just achieved a major breakthrough in achieving self-sufficiency in terms of raw fish supply” with the setting up of a new unit that has obtained allocation for capture finishing within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

The new subsidiary set up by Alliance’s Indonesian unit is called PT Van De Zee.  It is 80-percent owned by Alliance, representing the maximum holding allowed for foreigners under Indonesian capture finishing laws.

“PT Van de Zee will be operated in integration with the tuna processing activities of PTIAFI thus making it the first foreign investment company to be granted a capture fishing license and allocation in the rich fishing grounds of Indonesia,” Alliance spokesperson Rajat Balain said.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources has accepted from PT Van de Zee its fees for an initial allocation of 5,000 metric tons for 2012.  Conditional on the fulfillment of its five-year vessel acquisition program, PT Van de Zee has a potential allocation of 30,000 metric tons of 2016.

“This means that by that year, PT Van de Zee would be able to fully support a 100-percent capacity utilization of PTIAFI’s processing plant, which has a capacity of 90 metric tons per day,” Balain said.

Such allocation, Balain said, would not only give the Indonesian unit a very high competitive advantage in an industry whose biggest challenge has been to access raw material resource.

He added that PT Van de Zee itself would likely boost the overall value of the Alliance Group as its optimum yield of 30,000 metric tons per year would translate to an annual gross revenue of $66 million based on the present value of $2,200 per metric ton.

This development suggests that the production out of Indonesia can exceed Alliance’s production in General Santos, Philippines.