To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Senegal's independence Day, April 4th, 2020, NDN Media Group (www.ndnnews.co.kr) and ‘SeoulCity’ magazine illuminates Dongwon Industries as the most outstanding companies in Senegal for bilateral economic cooperation between Korea and Senegal with mutual win-win partnerships highlighting the progress and achievements of Dongwon Industries in Senegal. - Ed.

Dongwon Industries, the world’s largest tuna fishing and trade company, was established in 1969 by Jae Chul Kim aged 35, currently honorary chairman of the company, who began to build up his skills and credit as a captain of two second-hand ocean fishing vessels. Afterwards, the company started to expand its global business by acquiring StarKist in 2008, the largest tuna brand in North America. In 2011, it acquired SCASA, a tuna can processing plant in Senegal and in 2015, It established CAPSEN, a fishing company, to ensure more efficient supply of raw tuna to SCASA.
SNCDS, the former name of SCASA, the first tuna can company and state-run company in Senegal was acquired by Dongwon Industries in 2011. At the beginning stage of operation, productivity rate was only 24 percent of Korean market, which lost competitiveness and made it difficult to maintain factory operation. However, in the second half of 2016, president, Jongo YI, who had extensive experience in African markets, actively promoted with ‘SCASA 2.0’as a symbol by ‘strengthening labor-management relations’, upgrading quality, pursing global support and new investment. In addition, experts from Dongwon Group in Korea and StarKist in the U.S. were dispatched to Senegal for conducting quality monitoring and continuous education based on HACCP in order to enhance production technology and quality control. When SCASA’s products reached a satisfying quality level for exports to U.S., not only StarKist but also European customers trusted SCASA’s quality, opening the gateway to European markets. The results of SCASA 2.0 management innovation have been linked to actual increase of production, and since the acquisition, the company has succeeded in making profits in 2018. The volume of raw fish processing, which stood at 5,000 tons a year at the time of the acquisition, has increased 5.6 times to 28,000 tons. CAPSEN, a fisheries corporation, was established to provide raw tuna fish in a stable manner as SCASA increased production. At the beginning of its establishment, it started with only one fishing vessel, but afterwards four fishing boats were added as a result of SCASA 2.0. Currently, five ships are supplying high-quality raw fish to SCASA.

The full attention and support by Senegalese government played a major role in increasing SCASA’s performance. In April 2013, the honorary chairman, Jae Chul Kim of Dongwon Group received the Order of Merit of Senegal in recognition of his contribution to SCASA’s acquisition and investment in the region, and President Markey Sal personally attended the completion ceremony of SCASA factory in October of the same year to congratulate him. Under this good relationship with the Senegalese government, SCASA was able to elicit smooth cooperation through communication with concerned ministries. The success of SCASA is also vitalizing Senegal’s economy. Currently, 28,000 tons of raw fish will be increased to an annual level of 50,000 tons in the mid- to long-term basis and Employment expansion is expected from current 1,000 employee to more than 2,000. This year, in addition to SCASA’s own brand “CAP AFRICA,” it plans to release another self-brand, “Welsea,” which will contribute to the enhancement of Senegal’s national brand image through exports of Senegal made products, and spare no efforts to contribute to Senegal’s economic and social development through expansion of employment and investment.

Dong Won Industrial Company Overview
Dongwon Industries is the world-leading fisheries trade company with the world’s largest purse-seiner fleet and  is the only company operating across three major fishing areas in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Dongwon Industries owns StarKist, the largest tuna brand in the U.S. and operates tuna can processing plants in Ecuador and American Samoa, South Korea’s Changwon and Senegal’s Dakar. In addition, Dongwon is now acting as a founding member of SeaBOS (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship), a conference of global fisheries companies for sustainable fisheries and Won the most prestigious Marine Stewardship Council(MSC) fishery certification in the field of sustainable fisheries certification in 2019 and its annual turnover reached 2.6826 trillion won and resulted 193.6 billion won in operating profit.