Pedro Bastos is managing partner and commercial director of Nutrifresco – Comércio e Indústria de Pescados. Put like that, your story doesn't even seem to have much interest. But if it is said that Pedro Bastos is the supplier of fish and other seafood products to the large chefs of national restaurants, namely those awarded with Michelin stars, the story is already starting to become more appealing.
Pedro Bastos is the son of a fish trader in Albufeira and since he was a kid he got used to dealing with different types of fish… and with business. When he was 6 years old, he went with his father to the auction in Sagres, where he bought most of the fish he sold at his stall.
And it was also at the age of 6 that Pedro made his first business: «my father put an assortment of fish for stew in a box, which I went to sell at the door of the square». At the age of 7, with two more friends, he created a «society: I would talk to customers and sell the fish, one of my friends would collect the money and the other would put the fish in the bags». This onslaught by the world of the informal economy has already been around for 30 years, but it has left it «the pet of the business».
Pedro Barros, who was one of the guests at a recent Beta Talk, in Portimão, alongside the agricultural businesswoman Fátima Torres, explained that this was also his «first entrepreneurship project». But many others followed.
A biochemical engineer in love with fish
«For those who are in business, the starting point must always be the fascination for what they do. But only with fascination you don't go there, you need knowledge». So when it came to going to university and choosing a course, Pedro knew that he wanted to study something related to fish, but from a perspective that interested him in the business world. He even thought about Marine Biology and Fisheries, but ended up opting for Biochemical Engineering at the University of Algarve.
He ended up interrupting the course at the 3rd year, when, in 1999, he decided to create the nutrifresh, a high-end fresh fish trading company specializing in the acquisition, processing and personalized supply of fresh seafood to hotels and restaurants across the country…and beyond.
After four years, he decided to go back to university to finish the course and got it, taking two courses a year. When it came time to do the scientific internship, he decided to do it in his own company, but investigating a question that interested him for his business: "for how many days can we store fresh fish under refrigeration". Because, he told the Beta Talk audience, "one of the things I realized in my daily life was that the validity of fish was always an empirical thing." But Pedro wanted to know more and in his study he even confirmed that different fish have different validity, something he already knew from his experience, but which he was then able to scientifically prove.
Nutrifresco currently has, in its client portfolio, the Michelin-starred restaurants in the Algarve and some luxury hotels. He has also been the supplier of the Tribute to Claudia/International Gourmet Festival, which takes place in the double-star «Vila Joya», in Albufeira, or of the «blood in the gill», created in Lisbon by the Algarveans Ana Músico and Paulo Barata. «Haute cuisine depends on having good products, not high technology», says Pedro Bastos. And that's what your company offers.
But the Algarve businessman is not limited to supplying the best fish products in the world to his customers. It also helps them to fall in love with Portuguese fish and to learn more about the fish production cycle, an element that will help the star chefs in your daily toil.
«One day, I took the Head norte-americano Michael White, who has Madonna as one of his clients, at the auction in Sagres, so he can see and choose the fish. I have done this with other great chefs, because I think this rapport with the chefs, this sharing of information. Even for them to realize that when I say that it is not possible to find the fish they want that day, it is because it is not even possible!».
"The big secret goes a lot through the relationship between the supplier and the chef", explains Pedro Bastos, saying that he has invested a lot of time in "promoting partnerships with customers".
Nutrifresco's objective, he added, is "to place the customer at the center of the world", under the motto "there are no limits, there are no impossible". Although sometimes there is.
Satisfy demanding customers and anticipate needs
Nutrifresco, which operates in modern facilities in the municipality of Albufeira, but also has a platform at MARL, in Lisbon, employs 30 permanent workers and 10 commission agents, and supplies high quality fresh fish products. One of the new services it offers its exclusive customers is filleting, which includes scaling, shaping, filleting and removing all the bones from the fish and requires "a lot of labor".
From time to time, customers ask you difficult-to-respond requests. In 2010, for example, the Japanese chefs of Tsuruya, a 3-star Michelin restaurant from Kyoto, who came to the Algarve for the Tribute to Claudia, wanted abalones with 15 centimeters, a mollusk that doesn't exist on the Portuguese mainland coast, but only in the Azores, and is caught diving. They still wanted bream from the auction in Sagres, but caught the day before (on a Saturday, when the auction is closed) and bled while still alive to preserve its freshness. And, not happy, they also wanted tuna black end. Pedro was unable to satisfy all the requests, not least because bad weather on the Azorean coast prevented the abalone from being caught, but the fish he supplied to the Japanese met his demands and his reputation was saved.
Aware that, even in the fish market, it is always necessary to innovate, Nutrifresco began to produce and supply tuna tartar, “a product that did not exist”. "There is always more and more that can be done, we have to always try to win the impossible". «Our company does not sell fish, it sells services, it sells trust!», guarantees the entrepreneur.
In the field of innovation, Pedro began to suggest other species to the chefs, namely species from artisanal catches, fish that might even be more expensive “but it's better”. And that was how strange fish such as rascasso or rooster fish became part of the menu of the best restaurants. or what fish humble, such as sardines or mackerel, also gained status to be served at the most demanding tables.
Get "in the fish's skin"
Nutrifresco has a turnover of 5 to 6 million euros a year, handling three to four thousand kilos of fish per day. It currently has around 70 customers in the Algarve, close to 60 in Lisbon and 15 in Porto. It exports permanently to four countries: Spain, Italy, Poland and the United States of America, and, intermittently, to Belgium.
He even had an experience of exporting to Macau and Azerbaijan (where they went to work internationally renowned chefs with whom he had worked in Portugal), “but the experience did not work, for logistical reasons”. It's just that, explained Pedro Bastos, there's no sardine freshness that can withstand a 50-hour trip...
To guarantee its high level of quality, Nutrifresco currently buys fish in 10 auctions in the country, a work carried out by Pedro Bastos himself, but also by a network of commission agents. To satisfy the demands of its customers, it also imports fresh salmon and cod from Norway, as well as turbot from Spain. It has also been importing scallops from Norway, caught by diving.
But everything else is Portuguese fish. Not least because, guarantees the company's general director, «we have the best lobster and the best tuna in the world».
In a market that deals daily with a highly perishable product, such as fish, the Algarve businessman emphasizes that «the most difficult thing in all of this is not to fail, because we have to manage very difficult, very tight logistics. To satisfy orders, the same variety of fish sometimes has to be bought at several auctions, at different prices, on the same day. The management of stocks and orders is our great difficulty, because the fish we buy today is worth a lot, but tomorrow it has lost its freshness and is worthless».
Despite all the stress of the business, Pedro Bastos would not trade what he does for anything. Also because, as he revealed in his presentation at Beta Talk in Portimão, he likes to "get under the skin of the fish".
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