Capitalising on the environment

Reya-Fish Ltd was established in 1994 by privatising the biggest aquaculture farm in Bulgaria. The company’s main production facility is situated at Dospat lake in the Rhodope mountains 1,200 metres above sea level. This is one of the largest cage farms in Europe, with a capacity of about 2,000 tonnes per year. The farm has cages with a total area of 12,000 sq. m along the lakeshore dedicated to the farming of rainbow trout.

The company has a second farm that produces 4 million of the 5 million five-gram fingerlings needed annually for on-growing. The balance is purchased from the company’s established partners. During the on-growing stage the fish are fed on a diet of cold extruded feed with a high protein content, which comes from suppliers in Greece, Italy and Denmark. On this diet the fish take 6-8 months to reach a size of 300 g when they can be harvested.

Upon harvesting the fish are processed to yield a variety of different products; chilled not gutted, chilled gutted, frozen gutted head on, butterfly or single fillets, as well as marinated and smoked fillets. The products are then vacuum packed or put in plastic bags depending on the type of processing. The processing plant has a production area of 1,500 sq. m and a coldstore with a capacity of 1200 cu. m. Recently the company was granted a license to export to the EU.

Main market in Germany

The company’s main markets are in Germany where they sell mainly smoked fillets, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary which buy mainly frozen products and the USA for frozen trout fillets. The buyers are primarily wholesalers except on the domestic market where the company sells to supermarkets such as Billa and Metro.

Now with a license to export to the EU in hand the company is planning to expand its farming activities to carp and sturgeon and to extend the range of products to include salted fish, canned fish and caviar.

Valeri Baronov, the owner of the company, feels that the pure water of Dospat Lake and the clean and healthy surroundings are reflected in the fish making it a very special product. The company has started the procedure to have their trout as certified as organic which he feels will benefit their sales particularly on the German market.

For more information contact:
Mr Valeri Baronov
Reya Fish Ltd
Technical University, Bldg 7, bh 6 (NTM)
1756 Sofia
Bulgaria

Tel.: +359 2 962 5252
Mobile: +359 88 505 525
Fax: +359 2 963 2512
Email: reyafish@iname.com

Back to contents page