Matosinhos, Portugal
Pinhais & Cia
Family-owned (1920) fully artisanal hand-packed sardine and mackerel cannery producing under NURI, Pinhais and 30+ historic export brands.
Founded in 1920, Pinhais & Cia operates as a small-scale producer and manufacturer of canned fish products, specializing in sardines under two brands: NURI (launched 1935, handmade artisanal format targeting international markets) and Pinhais (core Portuguese market brand). The company operates its historic factory in the centre of Matosinhos with approximately 100 employees, emphasizing handcrafted production methods replicated since 1920. Processing steps include manual fish selection and reception, cutting and preparation in traditional nets, purification in century-old tanks, individual slow steam cooking, manual canning with refined olive oil, and 100% manual packaging. The company practices retort sterilization per international regulations as the final thermal processing step.
Pinhais & Cia holds FDA compliance certification, IFS (International Featured Standards) certification, HACCP certification, and MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification. The company partners with small-scale local suppliers using purse seine capture methods and maintains an internal laboratory for quality control. It exports approximately 90% of production to international markets. The company distinguishes itself by hand-wrapping each tin individually, sourcing only refined olive oil, and using fresh ingredients from small local producers, combined with multi-step artisanal preparation processes that triple the production steps versus standard commercial equivalents.
Capabilities
- Meat & seafood
- Fish processing
- Thermal
- Retorting
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