The trade manager of Metro Cash & Carry Romania wants to push the sale of fish on the domestic market, after he first introduced fresh fish in Italian stores.
Frozen, fresh, ocean, salted and freshwater - fish has this year become a key element in the development strategy of Metro Cash & Carry Romania, the biggest company in Romanian trade, whose deals topped one billion euros last year.
"The Romanian market is seeing increasingly large investments in the hotel and restaurant domains," says Gerardo Monzillo, trade manager with Metro Cash & Carry.
Moreover, he says, an increasing number of Romanians are going abroad and returning with higher expectations, pushing restaurants to extend the range of products they offer.
"Fish is, in this context, a segment with high potential in Romania, the more so as you are a Latin country and you like, just like we do, everything that is good and of a superior quality," says Monzillo.
The Italian manager came to Romania in 1999, after having occupied the position of Metro operations manager for many years.
"When I came to Romania, Metro Constanta was about to be opened. I insisted that we introduce a fresh fish department, and this was the first Metro outlet in Romania selling fresh fish," explains Monzillo.
Since then, all Metro outlets have offered fresh fish, and the network is now selling, according to the company''s own estimates, about 30% of the Romanian production of carp and 60% of the trout production.
But the big step was made this year, when Metro Cash & Carry decided to directly bring freshwater fish from abroad during the periods when it is not being produced domestically, particularly saltwater fish and other seafood.
"Hotels, restaurants and catering firms, that is the HoReCa segment, are our main customer and I believe it is time we offered saltwater fresh fish, too. This is why we''ve decided to import directly from Greece and Italy twice a week," says Monzillo.
Unlike frozen fish, which has a validity term of several months, fresh fish must be cooked and implicitly sold much more quickly.
Monzillo says that though the fish product range is quite large, it might expand further, as imports can be made on the basis of orders. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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