Shrimp Insights' Europe Top 25 Farmed Shrimp Importers

In recent years, and contrary to the expectations of many industry insiders, Europe’s imports of farmed shrimp have expanded. With the US market undergoing fundamental shifts driven by tariffs and changing competitive dynamics, many exporters are now looking to the EU as a strategic destination to diversify risk and maintain — or even grow — their export volumes. But the EU is anything but straightforward. It is a fragmented, highly differentiated market in which each sub-region has its own product preferences, distribution systems, and dominant players. Choosing the right entry point requires a clear understanding of who really drives import volumes across the EU’s many regions and market segments.

In earlier blog posts, I provided in-depth analyses of the shrimp markets in Northwestern Europe and Southern Europe. In this article, we zoom out and look at the bigger picture: the structure of the EU’s importer landscape and the leading companies that shape it. After reading this, you will have a solid overview of the companies that matter most — and which ones you should consider building relationships with if you aim to connect with customers who move significant volumes.

In the next blog, we will provide more details on the geography of the EU’s imports and where growth occurs. 

Do you need a more detailed overview of EU and UK importers, the markets they serve, and the origins of their imports?

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The Import Landscape

The EU import landscape is continuously reshaped by mergers, acquisitions, and shifting supply strategies. Based on my analysis of shipping data across the EU and the UK, roughly 800 companies import farmed shrimp each year. Yet only a fraction of these operate at a meaningful scale. About 350 companies import more than USD 1 million worth of shrimp annually — equivalent to roughly 4–8 containers — and therefore play a consistent role in the market. An even more concentrated core of about 25 companies imports more than USD 25 million per year, or 100–200 containers, making them the volume drivers in the EU. Figure 1 illustrates this size distribution by showing the estimated value bands of importers handling at least USD 1 million (or 4–8 containers) of Penaeus shrimp annually.

Figure 1: Rough breakdown of size categories in terms of the EU and UK’s 800 companies engaged in importing raw and value-added farmed shrimp
Source: Shrimp Insights Research

Based on my estimates, each of the top 25 companies imports more than USD 25 million in farmed shrimp annually. Collectively, they account for roughly 35–45% of the EU’s total import value of farmed shrimp. Nueva Pescanova stands out as the single largest importer, sourcing an estimated USD 150–200 million, or around 5% of all imports. At the lower end of the top 25, companies handle between USD 25–50 million per year.

Looking at group revenues, the top 25 represent a diverse mix of corporate profiles. Ten companies generate more than USD 1 billion in annual turnover, eight report revenues between USD 100 million and USD 1 billion, and the remaining seven report revenues below USD 100 million. While many are specialised shrimp or seafood operators, others form part of large multinational groups, such as Nissui, Charoen Pokphand Foods, and Labeyrie Fine Foods. Most of the top 25 supply Europe’s major retail and foodservice players, though some — including Metro AG in Germany, Marr in Italy, and Brouwer Groothandel Groep in the Netherlands — are major wholesalers in their own right.

Around half of the companies on the list operate mainly at the national level. Examples include Ecuashrimp, Comavicola, Skalo, New Food, and Marr in Italy; Fisherman’s Choice and BML Food Group in the Netherlands; Thalassa in Belgium; and Groupe JMI, Escal, SN Trading, and Si2a in France. The remaining companies are larger regional groups with Europe-wide sales and distribution networks. Some have deep roots in fishing or aquaculture — including Nueva Pescanova, Grupo Profand, Parlevliet van de Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, and Maruha Nichiro — while others are primarily trading and processing groups, such as Sykes, Labeyrie Fine Foods, and Nissui. A subset of companies, including Nueva Pescanova, Cooke Inc., Cornelis Vrolijk, Groupe JMI, and Charoen Pokphand Group, is vertically integrated through shrimp farming, processing, exports, imports, and distribution.

Top 10 Importer Profiles

Profiles of the top 25 companies are too long. However, let’s look in a bit more detail at the 10 largest. Do you need more profound insights into any of the other companies? Do not hesitate to get in touch.

1. Nueva Pescanova

Regarding shrimp sourcing, I estimate that in 2024, Nueva Pescanova sourced around $200-250 million across species. The total revenues in the financial year 2023-2024 reached just over $1 billion, with shrimp accounting for the majority. In Europe, Nueva Pescanova is headquartered in Spain with subsidiaries in Italy, Greece, Portugal, and France. The companies' cooking facilities are concentrated in Spain and France, and the subsidiaries in Greece, Portugal, and Italy operate primarily as import and distribution companies. The company is Southern Europe’s largest supplier of chilled cooked HOSO shrimp but also has a whole range of value-added and frozen items.

On the production side, Nueva Pescanova owns farming and processing operations in Ecuador (Promarisco, 100% owned), Nicaragua (Camanica, 100% owned), Guatemala (Nova Guatemala, 100% owned), and India (Abad Overseas, 49% owned). While its processing activities in Ecuador and Nicaragua focus on HOSO products for markets in China and Europe, its processing plants in Guatemala and India are also equipped to produce value-added peeled products for other markets.

2. Parlevliet van de Plas

Heiploeg, together with its operations in the Netherlands, Morocco, Surinam, and India, was acquired in 2014 by Parlevliet & Van der Plas (PP Group). Since then, the group’s shrimp activities have been aligned under Heiploeg’s commercial umbrella. Through various acquisitions by Parlevliet van de Plas, Heiploeg has become the EU’s largest processor and distributor of raw and cooked chilled (refreshed) tropical shrimp. From its central facility in Zoutkamp in the north of the Netherlands, Heiploeg handles the thawing, cooking, packing, and distribution of a broad assortment of chilled and frozen shrimp products for European retail and foodservice customers.

In addition to warmwater species such as L. vannamei and P. monodon, Heiploeg plays a significant role in the supply chain for North Sea brown shrimp (Crangon crangon). The company owns an operation in Morocco, where it processes North Sea brown shrimp before distributing it throughout the EU. Warmwater shrimp are sourced from various origins across South America, Central America, Africa, and Asia, depending on availability, seasonality, and customer specifications, with Ecuador and India among its primary sources.

3. Maruha Nichiro (Umios Corporation)

In 2013, Maruha Nichiro acquired Seafood Connection in the Netherlands. Recently, the group announced that it had purchased the remaining shares and now owns 100% of the company. In an effort to expand its sales channels in Europe, Seafood Connection acquired Inlet Seafood in Spain and North Coast Seafood in the UK. It also has sales offices in Italy, Portugal, France, Germany, and Poland. The group also owns Asiatico, a major Asian frozen-foods wholesaler based in the Netherlands.

In a recent publication, Seafood Connection’s group revenue was mentioned to be around €700 million, with the majority of revenue coming from fish rather than shrimp. The company states that it trades more than 80,000 MT of fish and seafood. Its shrimp division has grown fast. It’s not entirely clear how much of its revenue comes from shrimp, but it’s fair to say it’s the Netherlands’ second- or third-largest shrimp importer and a major player in the EU import landscape. Contrary to Heiploeg and Klaas Puul, Seafood Connection is not yet active in the chilled shrimp segment. The company focuses on supplying frozen products.

The company primarily sources shrimp from Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh, where it has dedicated purchasing offices. But it also has a clear presence in countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Ecuador. Contrary to Heiploeg and Klaas Puul, Seafood Connection is not a major shrimp reprocessor; so far, it has traded and distributed frozen shrimp to wholesale and retail clients across Europe.

4. Sykes Seafood Group

Sykes Seafood Group has, in recent years, acquired Klaas Puul in the Netherlands and Ruskim Seafood and the Big Prawn Company in the UK. Combined, the group is one of the largest shrimp buyers in Europe. It is believed to have grown its revenues to $500-600 million, of which its operations in the Netherlands may contribute $125-150 million, with the remainder generated by the group’s companies in the UK. The companies in the UK trade a wide variety of seafood. Klaas Puul is almost entirely dedicated to shrimp.

In the UK, the company operates a new facility that processes fish and seafood, which it distributes nationwide. While the UK business is still primarily focused on wholesale markets, the company is also making inroads into retail. Klaas Puul operates two main divisions. One is its North Sea shrimp supply chain, for which it partners with several shrimp trawlers and owns a shrimp processing plant in Morocco. The other consists of its tropical shrimp imports and its processing and distribution activities in Volendam and Edam, the Netherlands. After Heiploeg, Klaas Puul is Europe’s largest supplier of peeled, refreshed exotic shrimp. Klaas Puul’s sales are primarily to retail clients across continental Europe.

The group has a strong sourcing base in Asia and Latin America with significant volumes originating from India, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

5. Groupe JMI

Today, Groupe JMI is one of the most prominent shrimp groups in the South of the EU. Groupe JMI comprises a range of companies invested in shrimp farming in Ecuador (7,000 MT of L. vannamei), trout farming in France (1,080 MT rainbow trout), fishing companies in Madagascar (1,250 MT of wild-caught prawn), shrimp cooking facilities in France and Romania, a wholesale company in France, and a specialised frozen seafood company (Gelpeche) in France. As a group, the company is believed to sell around 20,000-25,000 MT of shrimp annually.

Crusta’c joined Groupe JMI in 2017. The company was established as Crusta d’Oc in 1993. Since then, it has opened three additional processing facilities, enabling it to sell shrimp nationwide. While the first three facilities catered mainly to the Horeca segment, the last facility, opened in 2020, was designed for supermarkets. The site is fully automated and ASC-certified. Gelpeche is the leading frozen seafood importer and distributor within the JMI group. It sells wild-caught and farmed shrimp to retail and foodservice customers.

The group sources shrimp from its own companies in Madagascar and Ecuador, but also buys from a wide range of suppliers in Ecuador, other parts of Latin America, India, and other parts of Asia. As a group, the company is believed to sell anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 MT of shrimp annually. Groupe JMI is also closely associated with SN Trading, which is on my top 25 importers list, as the CEO of Groupe JMI is family of SN Trading's CEO.

6. Cornelis Vrolijk

Cornelis Vrolijk is the Netherlands’ second-largest fishing company, with a fleet of vessels that catch fish worldwide and a network of processing, sales, and distribution companies across Europe. Its shrimp activity is primarily organized under Primstar. Primstar coordinates the activities of the companies that it (partly owns) in Ecuador, Nigeria, and Spain. In Ecuador, the company is a JV partner in one of the farms owned by one of two families that own Songa (one of Ecuador’s largest processors and exporters). In Nigeria, the company owns a large fleet of shrimp trawlers and a semi-intensive P. monodon farm through its subsidiary Atlantic Shrimpers.

Gambastar is its most significant investment in processing and distribution in Europe. Gambastar is one of Spain’s top three shrimp processors. At its production site in Burgos, Spain, it can cook approximately 10,000 MT of shrimp per year. As such, Gambastar is a small player compared to Nueva Pescanova but has a solid position in the Spanish market. While most of its business consists of cooked, head-on products, which it imports in bulk, it also offers a range of frozen products in several major supermarket chains in Spain. It has sales agents in France, Italy, and Portugal.

In other parts of Europe, Primstar supplies Nigerian shrimp primarily to high-end food service channels, and Ecuadorian shrimp from its own investment in Ecuador to retail and food service channels. Although the company has a small facility to thaw and pack chilled shrimp for retail, the company primarily focuses on the frozen market. In the Netherlands, the company also owns a processing plant for North Sea shrimp, equipped with patented peeling machines.

7. Labeyrie Frozen Foods

Labeyrie Fine Foods is a French company specializing in premium, "trendy" foods like smoked salmon, foie gras, and other delicatessen items. The group has a turnover of about $1.1 billion, of which $300-400 million is generated by Delpierre (its seafood division in France) and around $150 million by Lyons Seafood in the UK.

Delpierre (also known as Adrimex) was acquired by Labeyrie Fine Foods in 2007. The company has four seafood processing sites, one of which is dedicated to shrimp cooking and packaging. Delpierre dominates the French shrimp market, supplying large volumes of unbranded bulk chilled and cooked products, as well as value-added packaged products under its own brand. Its main competitors in the cooked HOSO market are Pescanova France and Crusta’c (part of Groupe JMI). The group claims that 100% of Delpierre’s farmed shrimp supply is ASC-certified.

In 2004, Lyons Seafood was acquired by Labeyrie Fine Foods. One of Lyons Seafood's major retail clients in the UK is Sainsbury's, but it also supplies others, such as ASDA. The company operates a processing plant where it thaws, cooks, and packages chilled products for retail distribution, but it also supplies frozen goods. It has recently been reported that Labeyrie Fine Foods may be looking to divest and sell its UK seafood activities. The company has not confirmed this news.

8. Cooke Inc.

Morubel was established in 1954 in Oostende, a small fishing village on the Belgian coast. The current facilities were constructed in 1993 and primarily consist of a processing and packaging site where Morubel processes imported peeled shrimp into frozen, cooked, blanched, and marinated products for distribution to retailers throughout Europe. The company competes with, among others, Escal, Heiploeg, and Klaas Puul. While Cooke has a turnover of around $4 bln, Cooke Europe represents a turnover of around $150 million.

Until 2014, Morubel was owned by Heiploeg. After Heiploeg’s bankruptcy in 2014, Morubel wasn’t acquired by Parlevliet van de Plas, but by private equity firm Bencis Capital. In 2016, Bencis also acquired German shrimp importer Ristic, which in turn owned Rainbow Exports, an aquaculture and processing operation in Costa Rica producing organic and conventional shrimp. This operation was maintained, and Bencis merged the companies into a single group, Shore. Telson, a company specializing in automated peeling of North Sea shrimp, also joined the group. However, Rainbow Exports and Telson were divested in 2020.

In 2022, it was acquired by Cooke. Since then, Morubel has been rebranding itself as Cooke Europe, although Morubel remains a well-known name in the market. Being part of Cooke, through vertical integration in shrimp fishing in Argentina and shrimp farming in Honduras, firmly positions the company as a major supplier of Argentinian red shrimp and organic and conventional L. vannamei shrimp from Honduras. The company also maintains a strong position in wild-caught PUDs and conventional L. vannamei from India and a few other origins.

9. Charoen Popkhand Group

Charoen Popkhand Group, better known as CPF, is probably one of the most surprising companies in the EU’s top 25 shrimp import list. CPF has investments in shrimp genetics, feed, farming, and processing in Thailand, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, and Brazil. The company also owns import companies in the US and Europe. In Europe, its companies are based in Belgium (CPF Europe, established in 2002), Germany (Paulsen Food, established as a JV in 2017), Poland (CPF Culinar, established in 2006, and CPF Poland, established in 2017), and the UK (Westbridge Food Group, acquired in 2017). Poland is the strongest base for CPF in Europe, closely followed by the UK, and then by Germany and Belgium. The majority of CPF's imports into Europe originate from Vietnam, but it also imports from Thailand, Bangladesh, and India.

CPF Culinar was established back in 2006, and CPF Poland was established in 2017 as a JV partnership with Superdrob (also known as Lipco Foods), a prominent Polish poultry producer. In 2021, CPF Poland acquired Fish Food and Max Fish further to strengthen its position in the local seafood market. Just like in Poland, the companies’ activities in Westbridge go beyond shrimp and seafood, and also include poultry, the origin of CPF’s business. Westbridge in the UK has also launched an Asian-inspired value-added ready-to-eat brand, Kitchen Joy. Kitchen Joy offers chicken, shrimp and vegetarian noodle dishes and soups. These products are, for example, available at Tesco.

10. Escal

Escal is the smallest company in this top 10 overview and is actually very close to some of the other players in estimated sourcing value. Escal is a family-owned company that started selling French specialty products on the German market. Today, the company offers retailers a range of seafood, snails, and specialty products, mainly in Germany and France. The seafood business accounts for around 60% of the company’s total turnover, with shrimp accounting for most of it. Escal is a strong brand that sells farmed and wild-caught shrimp, including organic varieties. Its L. vannamei shrimp is mainly imported from Ecuador, India, and Vietnam. Escal imports raw materials and processes them into cooked, blanched, and marinated frozen products for retail and foodservice. In 2020, Escal acquired shrimp cooker L’Assiette Bleue and entered the chilled and cooked shrimp market, focusing on non-treated products.

Conclusion

While these top 10 companies are growing through mergers and acquisitions, they should also be seen as just the tip of the iceberg of companies driving growth in the EU market. The other 340 companies that import significant volumes of shrimp can also be ideal business partners. Don’t hesitate to get in touch for deeper insights into the EU’s import landscape.