Company Highlight: WhitePole Fishing Company

WhitePole Fishing Company is a Sierra Leonean owned company founded by Reginald Harleston Sr. in 1985. The company started off as a construction and block manufacturing company and became renowned as the largest cement blocks manufacturing factory and building materials Store in Sierra Leone.

In 2002, Reginald Harleston Jr. took over the management and operations of his father’s company with the aim of diversifying and expanding, ultimately transforming Whitepole into one of the nation's preeminent fisheries companies.

As an initial expansion strategy, WhitePole started by purchasing fish from Chinese trawlers and reselling over three hundred tons a month to buyers in the European and Liberian markets. They later established a two-year partnership with one of the largest fishing companies in Nigeria; Atlantic Shrimper which owned a fleet of over 60 fishing vessels.? This partnership allowed Atlantic Shrimper to provide the company with six vessels supporting the growth and export of over one hundred tons of fish and over eighty tons of shrimp products to both Africa and Spain monthly.??

WhitePole Fishing has built a Fish Process and Export facility in Sierra Leone that can produce over 20 tons of high quality, blast-frozen fish product per day. A percentage of the fish are sold in local markets by women fishmongers, with a larger portion exported to South Korean buyers.?

Over the years WhitePole has been able to build and establish very good working relationships with the Ministry of Fisheries and The Sierra Leone Maritime Administration. Its solid network of relationships and trusted contacts enables them to efficiently manage their operations.

With the support of Pangea, WhitePole is raising capital to increase its volumes to meet the local and international demand for sustainable fish. Whitepole will also install a 154 kWp solar photovoltaic system to reduce its reliance on costly and polluting diesel generators.

To learn more about WhitePole Fishing Company check out www.whitepoleltd.com