Kofradia, the link between tradition and innovation

Kofradia Basque Seafood bursts into the fish processing and marketing market with a strong link of association and collaboration with Kofradia Itsas Etxea, an entity promoted by Opegui, an organization of inshore fishing producers that brings together the fishermen's guilds of Gipuzkoa and which in turn participates in the new company with 30% together with the counterpart organization in Bizkaia (Opescaya).

Kofradia Itsas Etxea is a project that promotes the value of artisanal and inshore fishing in the Basque Country and has the following objectives: on the one hand, to contribute to the generational renewal of the inshore fishing sector; and, on the other hand, to promote the inshore fishing sector and to disseminate information about the types of fish, the campaigns or seasons, the fishing gear, their conservation and consumption, and their nutritional characteristics.

Since 2020, the organization has focused primarily on outreach and experiential learning, offering training courses, summer camps, and operating a restaurant and shop in the port of San Sebastián. Ultimately, it acts as the public face of the local, inshore seafood industry, educating consumers about seasonality, sustainability, and the excellence of its products.

In this sense, Kofradia Basque Seafood and Kofradia Itsas Etxea are a duo that brings together or merges the dissemination and value of our inshore and deep-sea fleet with industrial innovation in the form of comprehensive 360 solutions that transform the marketing of fish to respond to new consumption trends through high value-added products.

One of the most important aspects of this union is the transfer of knowledge, in the sense that Kofradia Basque Seafood will put its technical capacity at the service of Kofradia Itsas Etxea to:

1. Gastronomic innovation: Leading the formulation and preparation of 4th and 5th range dishes (products ready to heat or cook with minimal effort).
2. Scalability: Transforming the inshore product into high-quality gastronomic solutions that can be marketed in the Itsas Etxea store and in future Itsas Etxea stores that are planned to open in other municipalities of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, guaranteeing food safety and standards of excellence.
3. Added value: To allow fish from Gipuzkoa to be sold not only as raw material, but as a finished product with a Basque innovation seal.

“In short, Kofradia Itsas Etxea preserves and communicates the soul of our inshore fishing, while Kofradia Basque Seafood provides the industrial tools and innovation necessary to make that legacy competitive in modern markets through high value-added products,” Bilbao concludes.