Open Blue celebrates strong showing at Seafood Expo Global

Open Blue Cobia recorded a strong showing at the 2018 Seafood Expo Global event with the launch of a new range of frozen cobia products and its capture of a Seafood Excellence Global Award.

The 2018 Seafood Excellence Global special prize for convenience was awarded to Open Blue for its frozen, individually vacuum-packed, sashimi-grade cobia fillet. A panel of retail and foodservice seafood buyers and industry experts selected Open Blue as the winner in the Horeca category for foodservice entries catering to the hotel/restaurant/café market.

Open Blue was honored along with other Seafood Excellence Award winners at a prize-giving ceremony on 24 April, the first day of Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium. The company celebrated at an evening event featuring cobia prepared by a team of celebrated chefs from five different countries, complemented by a cocktail and champagne reception.

“We are honored to be recognized as part of this competition,” Open Blue CEO Chris Perry said. “We choose to farm our cobia in the pristine environment of the open ocean as this ultimately translates into delivering the highest quality and best tasting products to our consumers.” 

The event also marked the official launch of Open Blue’s new frozen offerings, which include fixed-weight portions of a saku loin and sashimi fillet. 

Perry said the new cobia fillets are “one of the most versatile products for foodservice,” as they can be used in either raw or cooked applications across a variety of global cuisines.

Based in Panama City, Panama, Open Blue also has offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Miami, Florida, U.S.A.; and Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Open Blue has achieved several key standards; successfully completing audits for Global.G.A.P, Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), British Retail Consortium (BRC), ISO 9001 (2015) and Friend of the Sea and was the first cobia producer globally to achieve ASC certification.