About Us

Humboldt was founded in 1982 by Enzo Sacerdote, an Italian civil engineer who came to South Africa in the late 1960’s to build the FIAT vehicle assembly plant at Rosslyn near Pretoria. The jump from ‘civil’ engineering to ‘food’ engineering was done during the late 1970’s when Enzo realized the latent potential of opening up global food trading with South Africa.

The business is still family-owned and run, with his son Alessandro having steered it for the past 15 years.

The challenges of food security are being addressed by the importation of high quality, protein-rich foods such as canned seafoods, many of which are staples in Southern Africa, providing safe, reliable and delicious meals to millions of families.

Partnering with innovative, reliable, and impeccable quality food production facilities in Asia, South America, Europe and Africa has enabled us to deliver on our promises to thousands of satisfied business partners and customers around the world in the four decades since the first orders were containerized and loaded onto vessels in Peru, destined for markets in Europe and Africa.

Today, we service several of the biggest retail brands in over 30 markets, with teams on-the-ground in South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and the U.K.