MANILA, Philippines — Alliance Select Foods International Inc. is in the process of buying out its partner in its Indonesian canned tuna subsidiary PT International Alliance Foods Indonesia to raise its stake to 99.98 percent.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Alliance Select said it will pay $500,000 to acquire 500,000 shares to increase its stake from 89.98 percent at the par value of $1.00 per share from PT Wailan Pratama.

The hike in ASFI’s stake in the subsidiary is subject to the approval of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board and Department of Law and Human Rights.

“ASFI feels that Indonesia will play a crucial role in the company’s future growth and profitability. The boost in stake by the parent company is being done at a time when the company plans to aggressively increase its production and marketing efforts in Indonesia,” the firm said.

It noted that “the country is extremely rich in marine resources and full control of IAFI will enable it to better plan production schedules and sales strategy to tap additional export markets around the globe.”

Alliance Select earlier announced that it has bagged major supply deals for smoked salmon in the US as it now claims to being Southeast Asia’s largest producer of smoked salmon.

The firm said its US subsidiary Spence & Company has just been selected as the sole supplier for the entire Wellsley Farms’ smoked salmon product line.

These products will be sold in BJ’s club stores. BJ’s is a membership warehouse retailer with 190 locations in 15 states in the US East Coast, said Alliance.

In addition, Spence has also added Costco’s Northwest division to its roster of clients. Costco is the largest membership clubhouse chain in North America with 592 locations in the US and Mexico.

Spence has made a concerted effort to further increase its client base and has also recently added online retailers like Mackenzie Ltd. (one of the largest sellers of US and imported smoked salmon and specialty smoked seaf food products) and Vermont Country Store (outlet for practical and hard to find products). Alliance said Spence has drawn up aggressive marketing plans that will be implemented this year with the goal of further expanding its distribution network across the US.