Editorial and managing director Tom Seaman brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week  

Undercurrent News was reporting live last week from the Conxemar trade show in Vigo, Spain.

During the show, Undercurrent reporters interviewed major companies such as Grupo Iberica de Congelados, Grupo Pereira and Grupo Nueva Pescanova, to name a few. Outside the blog, you can also read stand-alone stories from Conxemar about a new Ecuador shrimp plant, shrimp prices in this country, and a salmon factory in Latvia. 

The week ended with another twist in the Peter Pan Seafood Company saga, as an investor challenged former co-owner Rodger May's takeover in a receivership auction sale in court on Friday, Oct. 4. 

A day after the judge signed off on the assets sale to May, attorneys for California investor John Ketcham filed an appeal Friday in King County Superior Court in Seattle seeking to prevent May from taking possession of a salmon processing facility in Port Moller, Alaska.

Ketcham had loaned Peter Pan $10 million last year in return for a lien on one of the company's Alaska salmon processing plants. 

May is paying about $25.3m cash with about $12m credit for secured loans he'd advanced his own company since acquiring it with the help of two private equity funds in 2021. Those same investors have since supported a rival bid from Silver Bay Seafoods, alleging that May had misled them when the company began running into financial trouble.

There was also a flurry of other scoops on acquisitions. On Friday, Undercurrent revealed that a UK-based private equity company, CapVest Partners, is in talks to acquire Honey Smoked Fish Company in the US. 

Earlier in the week, two Japanese deals broke. On Oct. 2, Japanese seafood giant Nissui Corp. announced a deal for a plant in Saint-Hernin, France, from Guyader Traiteur Frais to expand its tapas product lineup, a rapidly growing category within the EU market. 

The acquisition, finalized on Jun. 28 through Miti, a France-based subsidiary of Nissui's European processing division, Cite Marine, is part of Nissui's strategy to broaden its tapas offerings to include seafood such as octopus, squid, and sardines.

On Sept.30, last Monday, Japanese seafood trading company Hanwa Co. acquired an 80% stake in Marugo Fukuyama Suisan Co., a seafood processor based in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. 

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Hanwa's processing capabilities and boost sales to markets in North America and Southeast Asia, further expanding its global seafood operations, the Tokyo-based conglomerate said in a statement.

In Canada, enforcement officers with the country's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) seized 13,000 pounds of lobster worth CAD 100,000 ($73,880) on Oct. 2 after executing a search warrant in Shelburne County, in the province of Nova Scotia.

An individual was arrested for an offense under the Fisheries Act, including maintaining a lobster pound without the required license, the DFO said in a press release. The officers also seized documents and electronic records, and the matter is under investigation for potential charges, the DFO added.

The DFO did not identify the lobster pound's location or the owner's name.

One story, a short-lived East Coast US port strike, looked set to blow up but fizzled out. "This strike is going to really wreak havoc," one US East Coast wholesaler told Undercurrent on Oct. 1. 

However, the strike ended on Oct. 4 after dock workers struck a deal with port operators. 

You can see the most-read stories from last week listed out below.

• Canadian fisheries officers seize CAD 100k worth of lobster in Nova Scotia
• Rodger May regains control of Peter Pan Seafood's assets
• Conxemar 2024: Iberconsa launches vessel in Namibia, plans new one in South Africa
• US East Coast wholesaler on port standoff: 'This strike is going to really wreak havoc'
• Peter Pan creditor appeals judge's sale of Alaska salmon plant to Rodger May
• ICES advises 22% cut in northeast Atlantic mackerel quota
• Week 40 shrimp price roundup: Indian prices pick up again, Vietnam's dip
• Wells Fargo urges judge to approve Peter Pan asset sale to Rodger May
• UK's CapVest in talks to buy US salmon smoker
• Hanwa acquires 80% of Hokkaido scallop supplier to boost global ops