Conservas Zallo, the taste of the sea

In Bermeo, in northern Spain, the smell and taste of the sea are captured in small tin cans that maintain the long fishing tradition for centuries.

Almost a hundred years separate the figure of Francisca Zallo, the founder of the company, from today. However, the Yellowfin tuna, the White tuna and the Cantabrian anchovies continue to be the trident of this family business.

• Conservas Zallo was founded almost 100 years ago…

Yes, we are a family business that was founded in 1926 in Bermeo, in Bizkaia. We continue to maintain the same fishing gear, the same production of canned food… we also try to preserve the culture that characterizes us in the canning sector and we do so by focusing on our 3 specialties: Yellowfin tuna, Cantabrian anchovies and White tuna

• You are focus on those 3 leading products. For someone who does not know about them, How can we identify the quality of the preserves?

In the taste. That’s where quality is easiest to identify. When you do a blind tasting or see the product, the differences are noticeable. The differentiation itself depends on the raw material. It is important that it is fresh and seasonal. We take it seriously. We want the raw material from the Cantabrian Sea and to do it as it was done before.

And the texture! For example, in the case of anchovies. They can be presented in many different ways, but simply by plating the anchovy you can see if it is fresh, if it is handcrafted worked or not and which anchovy has been washed manually or not. In machine, many times they still have many thorns, scales or even skin.

Instead, we do it in the traditional way, by hand, cleaning the spines one by one and removing the scales. In fact, we use an ancient technique by using the same fishing nets we uso for fishing to scratch the skin of the anchovy. This way, we reduce the damage to the anchovy skin.

• Let’s talk about the Yellowfin tuna. What makes yours different?

Especially the raw material, fresh and from our coasts. The further we get from the Atlantic, the harder it is to find good yellowfin tuna. One of their distinguishing features is their small size, maximal 10–12kg. This type of yellowfin tuna is only found in certain seas and área and that is what interests us.

• An important issue is sustainable fishing. You have the Dolphin Safe certificate. What exactly does it means?

It certifies that when we fishing, our team do not use trawl nets or other techniques that are harmful to the environment. For example, this is how dolphins are kept safe. Yellowfin tuna are only caught when we go out to fish them or tuna when tuna, and no other animal species. In fact, the majority of the fish we use is caught by hand and with an adze, it means one by one, so that it is the least harmful technique.

In addition, we have a second certification the MSC, an European certification that demonstrate our goal of maintaining the seas and being sustainable.

• Who is your client?

Historically it has always been a senior profile, who knows the producto and the culture of canning. Little by little, younger people have become aware that canned fish is not a bad fish. It is a product that also requires knowledge, to know and detect the quality between products.

• You are already in 15 countries. Which kind of export challenges are you facing?

A very clear challenge is digitization and ecommerce. These platforms allow us to reach many more people and show how the product is consumed. It is a challenge because until now it was done through a traditional distribution. We went to stores and fairs to show the product to the customer.

• What led you to join Spainery?

We had been trying to expand for a couple of years. We have a website but we only distribute in Spain. In the end, Europe is a very broad group of countries in which each country has a specific VAT, different transport costs or a different language… For us this as a significant barrier. We did not know if we were going to be able to distribute so differently and doing it in a unified way. And this is Spainery what achieves: unifying everything in which we as a company, are no table to do it as producers. When it comes to selling, with many targets, countries and languages​​… it gets complicated but with Spainery we reach the customer.

Here you can find products of Conservas Zallo