Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Kyokuyo Co. has taken a majority stake in Urk, Netherlands-headquartered NSF Holding BV, the owner of Northseafood Holland BV. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquired fish catching, primary processing and value-added seafood processing and sales company will operate as a subsidiary of Kyokuyo Europe BV.
Kyokuyo aims to further expand international business by establishing production facilities outside of Japan based on its strategic policy of “Producing Overseas and Consuming Overseas,” announced President and CEO Makoto Inoue.
The Netherlands is a major hub for seafood processing and exports in Europe due to its well established fisheries sector and highly efficient processing companies. Since its founding in 1982, NS Holland, as the Dutch business is known, has been engaged in the purchasing, processing and selling white fish and other seafood products that are harvested in waters near the Netherlands. Value-added frozen fish products, including fried seafood produced at the company’s plant in Urk are sold throughout Europe and further afield.
Through this consolidation, Kyokuyo aims to expand its European food production base and enhance economies of scale by increasing the handling of marine raw materials procured from around the world at the Northseafood Holland facility. In addition, synergies in sales capabilities are expected from the reciprocal use of the company’s networks and Kocaman in Turkey. In order to maximize these synergies and optimize the European business as a whole, Kyokuyo has decided to reorganize KKE as a holding company and establish NSH Co., Ltd., Kocaman Co., Ltd. and Kyokuyo Europe Trading BV (KET Co., Ltd., which spun off the former frozen food purchasing and sales functions of KKE Co., Ltd.) under the umbrella.
About Kyokuyo
Kyokuyo was founded in 1937 as a fishing company and has evolved into a leading food processing company with an emphasis on seafood. It built two plants in Japan in 1960, and the early ’70s established a cold storage facility and began tuna fishing with a fleet of frozen-at-sea purse seine vessels. In the early 1980s, several more value=added factories came into being, primarily for breading and producing sauces for ready-to-eat items.
The company went on to set up operations in China and Vietnam for reprocessing. In 2025 a joint venture with K&U Enterprises was created to concentrate on frozen sushi and sushi toppings. Recently, Kyokuyo Global Seafood in Thailand was established.
