Spotlight Series Continues: On the Ground (or In the Water) in Morocco

Now that we’ve introduced you to the Kingdom of Morocco, let’s focus on fish! Crown Prince gets both anchovies and sardines from Morocco, a country where we’ve been fostering close relationships with our fishers and canneries for over 20 years. Our President and North Central Regional Sales Manager make annual visits to Morocco, and we have an active representative living and working in the country year-round.

Ocean to Boat

So, how do Crown Prince fish get from the sea to your table? It starts in the water along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, in traditional fishing areas such as Safi, Agadir and Tan Tan. Caught in the open ocean waters, our anchovies and sardines are fished during peak season for optimum flavor and texture. (We’ll go further in-depth for each of these fish in coming posts.)

During harvest season, Crown Prince maintains regular visits to the different fishing ports to inspect the fish as they’re unloaded from the boats, and to oversee the trucking process between the harbors and the nearby canneries.

Boat to Can

At the canneries, the fish are screened, processed and canned by hand to ensure an exceptional level of quality control. Our partner canneries use the latest equipment and technologies and adhere to the toughest food manufacturer certifications in the industry (including BRC, IFS, and OU Kosher certification).

(Photos by Dustan Hoffman / Crown Prince)

Again, stay tuned for a closer look at the canning and preparation process for each of our two Moroccan fish: anchovies and sardines.

Can to Kitchen

Most of this you can probably guess: when packed and ready to go, Crown Prince seafood products are carefully shipped, distributed and stocked at your local grocer.

What you might not know is that even after our high standards and active participation in the canning process, we still personally test samples from every single product batch before we send them out to our grocers. Not that we mind.

Pictured: Snapper with Pesto Anchovy Sauce, Sardine Penne Arrabbiata and Baked Eggplant with Sardines (Photos by Lisa Sabatino / Crown Prince)

Growing Local Roots

Over the years, we’ve grown strong ties with our suppliers in Morocco, and these business partners have inevitably become friends. Many of the canneries are family-owned companies like our own, and our close working relationship with them helps us to source the best products to be found.

In fact, if you read the captions closely, you’ll see that several of the photos from our last post were taken by our president, Dustan Hoffman! She’s been great about documenting her travels to Morocco during the past several canning seasons. We hope you enjoy them!

What’s Next?

In our next edition of the Crown Prince Global Spotlight Series, we’ll look closely at each of the two fish we source from Morocco: the anchovy and the sardine. Just started reading? Make sure you visit our Global Spotlight Series Introduction post for a little context!

If you like what you’re reading on the Crown Prince Seafood blog, please come back often. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or contact us directly. We look forward to hearing from you.