Argentina's Trelew Free Trade Zone Tax Benefits Set to Take Effect in March 2027, Three Seafood Companies Have Begun Building Plants

Ignacio Torres, Governor of Chubut Province, Argentina, confirmed on Wednesday, November 4, at an event held in Trelew that the tax benefits of the Trelew Free Trade Zone (Zona Franca de Trelew) are expected to be fully operational in March 2027. At the event, Torres presented the infrastructure progress of the industrial park and the private investment taking shape, and stated that the related civil works will all be completed before that point, with fencing enclosure works and the entrance gatehouse currently underway.

Torres said: "Before March, we will certainly complete all the necessary civil works so that the tax benefits can begin operating as stipulated."

According to the plan, once the fencing works are completed and the relevant regime is approved for operation, companies entering the free trade zone can enjoy a zero-tax arrangement at the national, provincial and municipal levels. The regime also includes customs facilitation for imports of raw materials, machinery and capital goods, and export operations, with no withholding tax on exports. This has long been a demand of the industry to the national authorities.

Three Seafood Company Projects at Different Stages

Currently, the three company projects that have drawn the most attention in the entry announcements are at different stages of progress.

Pesquera Mediterráneo del Sur is the first company to confirm entry into the free trade subzone. The company is associated with shipowner Daniel Jurado, who owns a yellow fleet and an artisanal fleet, and is currently renovating an existing plant in the industrial park for processing shrimp and hake, and reprocessing squid. The company plans to begin operations during this season's provincial waters shrimp fishing season, initially employing more than 120 people, with an expected 400 jobs by the end of 2027.

Buenos Aires Pesca SA announced an investment of USD 15 million to build a seafood processing industrial plant. According to previous government announcements, the project is expected to create about 400 direct jobs. The company has begun land leveling and preliminary preparation work on its allocated plot and plans to adopt a fast-track construction approach.

Arbumasa formally submitted its plot application during last October's "Argentina Week" in Paris, proposing to build a processing plant. The project is currently in the architectural design and environmental permitting stage, and the construction phase is expected to create about 80 jobs, mainly for squid and shrimp processing.

Governor Adds Information on Two More Companies; Subzone Has Received 18 Applications

In his remarks on Wednesday, Torres added new information, confirming that two other seafood companies are in the process of completing entry procedures. According to him, one of them has obtained an allocated plot and has begun construction of a plant that may create more than 100 jobs. The governor did not disclose the names of these two companies or provide further details about their projects.

Overall, the number of entry applications is also expanding. According to the latest data published by the municipal government, the free trade subzone has received applications from 18 companies across different sectors, involving fisheries, textiles and metallurgy.

The Trelew Free Trade Zone has a planned area of 165 hectares and aims to become an industrial and logistics development center for the region. For fisheries, the core objective is to have a larger proportion of catch processed within the province, avoiding raw materials leaving the country in frozen block form and being shipped to third countries for processing.

In June this year, Mayor Gerardo Merino stated that five to six seafood companies had obtained permits to advance their projects.