Morocco Commissions Gaictech-Tunamax High-Tech Tuna Plant, 50 Million Cans

Tunamax SARL and Spanish engineer Gaictech moved what Tunamax describes as Morocco’s largest high-technology tuna processing plant into commissioning and staged production runs on March 3, 2026 at the Berrechid Ecoparc outside Casablanca. The turnkey facility was contracted in 2023 for close to €6 million and is built to process roughly 15,000 tonnes of whole tuna per year and produce more than 50 million cans annually.

Gaictech designed, supplied and commissioned a single integrated production line that handles frozen or fresh tuna from raw intake through thawing, preparation, cooking, cleaning, filling, addition of covering liquid, seaming, sterilization, cooling, labeling, packaging and palletizing. The project shipped nearly 40 containers of machinery from Galicia and includes three 12-metre long cookers as key pieces of equipment.

The plant layout is presented as a continuous, integrated system rather than separate bolted-on lines, with high levels of automation including conveyor systems, smart weighing stations and digital monitoring of time, temperature and hygiene to enable full traceability. Tunamax and Gaictech say those features support faster processing, lower waste, consistent quality and adherence to strict EU and US market rules.

Tunamax positions the new factory to serve Morocco’s domestic market while expanding exports to Europe, North America and West Africa. The Berrechid Ecoparc site was chosen in part for its proximity to the Port of Casablanca to speed deliveries of raw materials and outbound shipments to European and West African buyers.

Tunamax expects the factory to create direct and indirect jobs across operations, transport and packaging supply chains and to require staff training to operate automated systems. Coverage of the project highlights ergonomic design and workflow improvements aimed at reducing manual handling for operators and accelerating operational stabilization during start-up.

Tunamax Co-Owner and CEO Abdellah Bouja described the scope of the line: "The tuna line supplied by Gaictech covers the entire industrial process, from receiving frozen fish to the finished, palletized can." Bouja added, "It is a continuous line, designed to ensure consistency, food safety and constant final product quality." He also emphasized the project's technical edge: "Beyond the footprint, the project stands out for its level of automation, traceability and international standards."

Gaictech and reporting on the project project that the factory will deliver "faster processing, cleaner production and export-ready tuna for European and North American supermarkets." The company handled design, systems integration and start-up oversight under the 2023 contract, and provides post-commissioning technical support from its base in Galicia; contact for Gaictech is +34 986 44 29 04.

The claims that the facility is Morocco’s largest and the headline capacity figures are company-provided and have not been independently verified. Tunamax and Gaictech say the new line positions Morocco to capture higher-value canned tuna markets historically dominated by Asian and established European processors, and to accelerate the country’s seafood industrialization and export strategy.