The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Canadian seafood company Cooke has acquired Belgian shrimp processor Morubel from independent investment company Bencis Capital Partners. Founded in 1954, Morubel's wild catch range includes shrimps, prawns, crayfish and squid, as well as black tiger prawns, mussels and scallops. Located in Ostend, the company occupies a 14,000-square-metre plant that has a production capacity of 18,000 metric tonnes for frozen seafood, retail and bulk packaging. Morubel distributes its organic and frozen seafood products to retail and foodservice customers in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and France. The company was acquired by Bencis Capital Partners in 2014. “The Morubel team welcomes the sale to Cooke – we’ve found an ideal alignment to enable our future growth,” said Dirk De Pandelaere, CEO of Morubel. “We see a lot of opportunities to expand our product line to sell additional Cooke products in European countries where Cooke is building its presence.” Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.