Riberalves: Reinventing the codfish market

The origins of Riberalves can be traced back to the 1960s, when its founder João Alves first began helping his father sell codfish door to door in Lisbon. Many years later he would establish his own company, Riberalves, which over the years grew into international scale.

Riberalves is a leading food-processing company in the demanding Portuguese market, where codfish is a key ingredient in the local cuisine and for which it is said that over 1000 different recipes exist. The company stands out for its investment in quality and innovation, constantly looking to innovate, introducing new ways to present codfish to consumers with the objective of expanding to new markets. In order to support its operations, the company received financing from Banco BPI, backed by EIF.

Today, Riberalves exports to over 20 countries, with about 30% of its production destined for the Mercado da Saudade - which can be translated as “the longing market” - referring to the numerous expatriate communities of Portuguese origin.

The company produces more than 30,000 tons of codfish every year, equivalent to 8-10% of all codfish caught worldwide, and operates the largest industrial facility in the world exclusively devoted to codfish processing based in Moita, Portugal. In this production plant Riberalves implements its own technology, producing ready-to-cook, deep-frozen desalted Codfish. Due to its quality and convenience, this product fostered a reinvention of codfish consumption, opening doors to new markets and representing a convenient solution for both consumers and the catering industry.

Despite its size, employing 410 persons to date, Riberalves is still a family-run business. Ricardo and Bernardo Alves, whose names are reflected in the company’s name, are now part of the administrative structure of the company along with their parents, João and Manuela Alves. Riberalves is currently increasing production capacity, while continually investing in the improvement of the productive process.

Company: Riberalves (Portugal)

Type of business: Food Industry

EIF financing: InnovFin SMEG

Financial intermediary: BPI

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Denmark, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/pt