Cooke Seafood USA, Inc., Hyannis, Mass., formally acquired the assets of Fripur S.A., what is said to be Uruguay’s largest seafood company, effective Dec. 14.

The Fripur acquisition was completed through Perindes S.A., which is owned by the Cooke family.

Cooke previously began to repair the Uruguayan fishing vessels, and anticipates a resumption of fishing operations early in 2017. Fripur traditionally harvested approximately 16,000 tons of Hake (merlusa) and 1,600 MT Red Crab annually within the Uruguayan operations.

The acquisition of Grinfin, a subsidiary of Fripur based in Argentina, was completed several weeks ago. That purchase was made through Wanchese Argentina S.r.l., an entity owned by Cooke Seafood. Grinfin ‎employs 70 people, and the operation includes three large hake fishery vessels and an office in Buenos Aires.