Team ACUAMAYA is excited to be featured on the latest issue of the ShrimpTails Magazine with our #TastyShrimpClub initiative. Congratulations to the Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal (STIP) team, Hon Sophia Balod for another issue covering very important current topics for all! https://lnkd.in/eRhiQFD
Company Profile: Acuamaya
Main Product: Pacific White Shrimp
Headquarters Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Founded: 1983
Did you know that you can join a club for avid shrimp lovers? It’s called the Tasty Shrimp Club and it is one of the latest marketing campaigns of Guatemala’s leading shrimp producer, Acuamaya. This shrimp community is dedicated to sharing recipes, offering tutorials for preparing shrimp and even giving personal cooking tips from renowned chefs! Acuamaya’s approach is simple: create meaningful and personal relationships with their customers through interaction and active outreach.
“The inspiration for the Tasty Shrimp Club comes from the fact that Guatemala is one of the lowest seafood consuming countries in the world, according to FAO data,” said Gabriel Biguria, Sales and Marketing Vice President at Acuamaya. “Additionally, consumers have the impression that most of the top-quality products from the country are destined for export and not to serve the local markets.”
The Tasty Shrimp Club hopes to make shrimp consumption appealing to the Guatemalans through educational campaigns and building a collaborative community where customers can share and submit their own recipes, feedback and experiences. Making shrimp consumption fun is another priority. That’s why the Tasty Shrimp Club will invest in food tastings and cooking sessions with different local and international chefs.
“It is very important to change the perspective that shrimp is an ‘expensive’ product that can only be consumed for ‘special occasions’. Rather, we want to make it more readily available and affordable, in order to complement family meals at home,” Biguria said.
Investing in marketing efforts to promote shrimp consumption is only a part of Acuamaya’s overall strategy to set their shrimp products apart in the market. Traceability and sustainability are also at the forefront of their campaigns. As a vertically integrated company which manages its entire supply chain, Acuamaya offers customers the option to easily track the origin of their shrimp. By entering the code from the label on the packaging on their website, the customer can see the shrimp’s journey from hatchery to farm, down to processing and delivery. Acuamaya’s website is available in Spanish, English, Chinese and Japanese to encourage customers from across the world to visit the website.
The company focuses on farming Pacific white shrimp (L. vannamei). In 2019, Acuamaya produced 4,500 tonnes of shrimp, of which 95% was exported. These are mostly frozen products in a variety of presentations, including head-on shell-on (HOSO), headless shell-on (HLSO), peeled undeveined (PUD), semi-individually quick frozen (IQF), under the brands Tikal and Crystal Ponds. Acuamaya’s main markets include Europe (France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal), Taiwan, Japan and North America.
While a large chunk of Acuamaya’s business is focused on export, Biguria hopes to increase consumption and demand in his home country through the Tasty Shrimp Club campaign. “Our ultimate goal is to drive up demand and create a larger market. Our goal exceeds only selling shrimp. We also want to help Guatemalan producers by sharing our knowledge in farming with other farmers. We need them to be successful in order to have a flourishing industry,” Biguria added. To this end, the company hosts development trainings for small-scale shrimp farmers.
#seafood #shrimp #sustainableaquaculture #socialresponsibility #Guatemala #TastyShrimpClub #Acuamaya