‘Merpacífico’, a company that promises the best seafood product, is a reality in Palencia. The well-known businessman Conrado Merino, president of the Chamber of Commerce and promoter of Viveros Merimar, is behind a project that has involved an investment of 17 million euros and which has the objective of reaching around 200 employees. At the moment, it operates at 30 percent with 60 workers. “That kid who started delivering fish around Palencia with a Renault 6”, as Conrado Merino himself defines himself, is at the head of a macro project that is already exporting to Korea, Japan, China, the United States, Canada, Australia and Italy, in addition to opening branches in Andalusia and, soon, in Valencia and Madrid.

Merpacífico defines itself as “a leading seafood company, committed to sustainability and caring for the environment. Our focus on excellence in management and customer service sets us apart.”

In the 80s, Conrado Merino Inyesto took over the old family business, a fishmonger in a stall in the Plaza de Abastos in Palencia. Little by little, this traditional trade business begins to grow, beginning to bring live seafood and distribute it among the restaurant businesses in the area.

In 1991 he founded the company VIVEROS MERIMAR SL, dedicated to the Wholesale Trade of Fish and Seafood. In 2005, this company began the production and marketing of cooked octopus.

“In 2011, we began to import the main raw material of the production process (Frozen Raw Octopus) from the main fishing grounds of this article (Morocco, Mauritania, …). This made VIVEROS MERIMAR SL one of the main players in octopus in Spain. In December 2020, he divested himself of his participation in Viveros Merimar, after a corporate operation with the Angulas Aguinaga Group. In January 2023, he began a new career at the head of Merpacífico, being a project with the same illusion than 40 years ago, taking advantage of the know-how of all his business successes,” recalls the businessman.

What he regrets is that aid is not coming for projects like his and that they are investing in other large companies, mainly in the automotive sector. This regret comes from the fact that he has been denied a subsidy and, for the moment, is pending another, as he told Radio Palencia of Cadena SER.