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ASP is wholly owned by the Atlantis Seafood Products Employee Empowerment Trust which was transferred to the beneficiaries in a ground-breaking broad-based BEE transaction. All ASP workers are previously disadvantaged people from the Atlantis area. The company is 100% black owned with black women being the majority owners (85%). These women are often the only breadwinners for their extended families, making the Trust responsible for over 1 500 people in the broader community. As ASP is committed to youth employment, 75% of our employees are under the age of 35.
Our purpose-built factory uses highly specialised equipment with the latest, best-practice factory layout and design. This allows us to efficiently handle, package and process an impressive variety of seafood products. Over R200 million has been invested in the state-of-the-art processing facility in Atlantis. Our selection ranges from bespoke whole crab to popular bulk products like hake fillets, kingklip and line fish portions for the restaurant trade and specialised cuts for the retail sector. We pack fresh, quality hake fillets and portions for export to EU markets.
We expertly produce a range of seafood products, including hake, line fish, molluscs, crustaceans, various whole fish and a selection of speciality seafoods. Our specialist handling skills and versatile processes allow us to fillet, skin, de-bone, portion and pack a wide variety of fish and seafood, as fresh or frozen products. We pride ourselves on our ability to develop unique products with exclusive recipes from concept to plate, based on each customers’ unique requirements.
Our strong, strategic partnerships with Atlantis Seafood Distributors, Mascato and Plettenberg Bay Seafoods are our core differentiator. These well-established businesses are market leaders in the South African and international seafood industry. Our symbiotic partnerships with them allow our factory to demonstrate industry-leading excellence in the sourcing, trading and distribution of quality specialised seafood products.
Our continued investment in the local seafood industry empowers the community of Atlantis.
Atlantis Seafood Products is the third-largest frozen and fresh seafood processing facility in South Africa, with the property spanning approximately 42 000m².
Our factory was purpose-built in Atlantis to support and uplift the previously disadvantaged local community by providing sustainable employment and investment in the community.
We are dedicated to providing sustainable, healthy seafood to all South Africans.
In the 1970s, the apartheid government’s Group Areas Act forced coloured families to move from their homes in District Six to this settlement 45km from the city.
To service our existing markets without relying on imports, ASP depends on sufficient fishing quota. We need guaranteed, sustainable access to locally caught hake and other seafood products.Â
In the Fishing Rights Allocation Process (FRAP) 2015/2016, Atlantis Seafood Products successfully obtained a small quota in the Hake Inshore Trawl, West Coast Rock Lobster and Horse Mackerel sectors. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient to have a significant effect on production. It’s for this reason that the upcoming FRAP applications are so important. An economically viable quota, especially in the hake sector, will allow the business to be less reliant on imports and become truly vertically integrated.
For our long-term sustainability, we have placed a lot of emphasis and hope on the upcoming allocation process. The success of our factory, to date, has been dependent on imported seafood products and outsourced processing work.
ASP has invested in local commercial fishing ventures:Â
Atlantis Seafood Products is committed to ongoing investment in the South African fishing industry. We believe that further quota granted to our business will directly benefit our workforce and the local Atlantis community that we support, for many years to come.Â
Our state-of-the-art facility is of the highest standard and accreditation. Our food safety standards certification includes HACCP, EU accreditation, IFS (International Featured Standards), ISO14001 (environmental standards), Halaal, Kosher, MSC (chain of custody), OHS and the Spanish retail decalogue food safety criteria.
NRCS approval certificate: This National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications certification allows our factory to process fish. This certification audits our compliance in accordance with local SANS regulations as well as HACCP.Â
NRCS EU approval certificate: This approval certificate is audited against European Union regulations and allows us to export our products to the EU. With this certification, we are recognised as an EU processing facility and listed as such. Â
IFS food: International Featured Standards is a global safety and quality standard food safety system with which we are required to comply. This standard is accepted by all major retailers, with it the retailer does not have to audit a business itself, as this sets a sufficiently high standard.Â
Halaal certification (SANHA): Certifying our local products for the halaal market.
Kosher certification: Certifying that specific products are kosher. Â
MSC: Master chain of custody is a certification of sustainably sourced fish products throughout the chain, from the suppliers of raw material to processing at our MSC certified plant. Ensuring the customer gets a fully sustainably-sourced fish product.
Atlantis Seafood Products (ASP) is the third-largest frozen and fresh seafood processing facility in South Africa. Our selection ranges from whole crab to popular hake fillets, kingklip and line fish portions for the restaurant trade and retail sector.
ASP processes and packs a full range of various fish and seafood products for the four major South African retailers.
Our ability to develop a product – from concept to plate – based on our customers’ unique requirements is what sets us apart.
Meet the dynamic women of Atlantis Seafood Products featured on BBC World and BBC Africa.
Business Correspondent Vumani Mkhize tells the story of how the 100% black-owned trust now owns Atlantis Seafood Products and reveals how these women and others in the fishing industry are making waves to transform its profile and build an empowered community.
#makingwavesza #transformationinfishing #womeninfishing
In 2016, the business was sold to the Atlantis Workers’ Trust. At the time, the factory employed over 496 people, with 444 previously disadvantaged staff members from the community, the majority black women, being beneficiaries of the trust.
The Atlantis Seafood Products factory is closely linked to the well-being of the local community and our focus is to create employment and uplift the Atlantis community.
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The value of fishing quotas
The South African Fishing Rights Allocation Process (FRAP) is reviewed every 15 years with the intention of allocating fishing rights in an equitable process that promotes equality, transformation, job creation, competition and investment in the industry.
In the 2015/2016 allocation process Atlantis Seafood Products was successfully awarded rights in the Hake Inshore Trawl (HIT), West Coast Rock Lobster and Horse Mackerel sectors.
Access to additional fish supply through increased quota would allow the factory to be less dependent on sourcing products locally and internationally. The FRAP 2021 process has the potential to significantly transform the lives of the beneficiaries of the Atlantis Worker’s Trust and the community of Atlantis.
The story of Atlantis
History
Atlantis was established in the 1970s when coloured families from District Six in Cape Town’s city centre, were forcibly removed from their homes under the Group Areas Act and placed there, 45km from the city. The community, so far from employment and scarred by the removal, quickly became a poverty trap, known by some as a forgotten town.
Empowerment
Due to the potential for uplifting this forgotten community, the original owners decided to build a seafood production and processing factory in Atlantis in 2006. This business soon provided hundreds of jobs and contributed towards the economic empowerment of the poverty-stricken community.
In a landmark decision, Atlantis Seafood Products was sold to the Atlantis Workers’ Trust in 2016. This broad-based BEE transaction resulted in 100% of the company’s economic rights being transferred to the Atlantis community members, the majority being previously disadvantaged black women.
Today, Atlantis Seafood Products employs 359 people from the community. We positively impact a further approximately 1 500 family and extended family members who are supported by our employees, many of whom are the sole breadwinners.
Atlantis Seafood Products (ASP) has its roots in Atlantis, Cape Town, which is a previously disadvantaged community established in the 1970s when the Apartheid government’s draconian laws uprooted coloured families to the outskirts of the city. With widespread unemployment and poverty, the community deals with high levels of crime, drug addiction and gender-based violence.
As a company, we provided Atlantis families with much-needed employment. A job that builds dignity and self-respect thanks to our fair, ethical and inclusive labour policies. We are proud to have our factory here. We are dedicated to uplifting and supporting this community, where our workforce lives and where we are from.
Our mission is to ensure that everyone in our community has access to nutritious food because no one can thrive when they are hungry. We do this by supporting local soup kitchens and non-profit organisations that work with disadvantaged children, disabled people and the elderly. Through our CSI programmes we regularly donate cash and frozen fish, a much-needed and healthy source of protein, to assist these organisations uplift the most vulnerable in our community.
For us, investing in this community is more than just taking care of the people in the community where we are based. It’s about restoring dignity to the community, offering opportunities for growth and development and contributing to retribution in a long-lasting way. We feel a sense of responsibility and purpose to ensure that the next generation of this community has more hope, better prospects and a brighter future.
We are currently providing much-needed food and cash donations to organisations that serve the Atlantis community.
Supporting organisations in need in Atlantis is a central goal for Atlantis Seafood Products. We are committed to helping and supporting the community where our employees live. Orion is dedicated to creating a future for people with disabilities in Atlantis by providing professional therapeutic and development services.
As beneficiaries of the ocean’s bounty, our corporate responsibilities go beyond mere improvements in productivity and profitability. Therefore, at Atlantis Seafood Products we seek new ways to solve social challenges through our business activities. As nurturing the community of Atlantis is at the forefront of our social responsibility philosophy, we decided to become directly involved in supporting worthwhile and much-needed local charitable organisations.Â
One such cause is The Dream Team.
Thank you:Â
The beneficiaries of Atlantis Seafood Products would like to thank our customers and processing partners for their continued support. It is this demand that enables our factory to run a sustainable business which produces quality products that we are very proud of.
Our key differentiator: from concept to plate:
Our ability to develop a product – from concept to plate – based on our customers’ unique requirements is what sets us apart. We are proud to pack and process speciality products and house brands for our clients.
Atlantis Seafood Products (Pty) Ltd
145 Neil Hare Road
Atlantis Industria
Western Cape
7349
(021) 577 4777
info@atlantisseafoods.co.za
About Us
Atlantis Seafood Products (ASP) is the third-largest frozen and fresh seafood production facility in South Africa. Our selection ranges from whole crab to popular hake fillets, kingklip and line fish portions for the restaurant trade and retail sector.
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