SQUID
SQUID
Loligo Reynaudi, commonly known as Squid or Chokka is fished wild using hand line jiggers off the South African coastline (in fishing zone FAO 47).
The vast majority is exported out of the Port Elizabeth Harbour, mainly to Spain, Italy, Japan and other parts of Europe and Asia.
Pricing varies based on global prices, quality and size and is available upon request.
Fishing, weighing, sorting and grading process:
The squid are caught wild by hand line jigger into seawater bins on board. Once, ready for sorting, the squid are weighed and rinsed with clean seawater to remove any excess black squid ink. Each squid is then measured in length and graded accordingly:
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Small 14 – 18 cm
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Medium 18 – 25 cm
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Large 25 – 30 cm
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Extra Large 30 cm and longer
Packing and freezing process
The measured and graded squid is then placed in stainless steel freezer pans and each pan is labelled with:
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Size
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Catch date
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Name of vessel and EU Code
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Fishing area code FAO 47
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Product of South Africa
The pans are then immediately blast frozen on board to -20°c. Once frozen, the blocks are glazed with fresh seawater before being transferred into new clear plastic bags and then placed in the vessel’s cold storage at -20 degrees until ashore.
From boat to land:
Once ashore the frozen blocks are transported to the land cold storage facility. Each block is weighed, carefully inspected and quality controlled. Export grade is labelled “CJ Quality.” Each CJ Quality block has a 70% reddish-brown colour commonly referred to as “chocolate.”
Blocks are then boxed into branded cartons each randomly weighing between 10 and 13 kilograms. The branded boxes bear all product information including regulatory text, size, quality, EU code of vessel and date of boxing.
The boxed product is now ready for export and cold stored at -20 degrees celsius.