Norinho Brothers

The story begins in the 60s with Diamantino Norinho, 88 years old. Working in the sector since his 21 years, he decided to create, in 1960, Diamantino Francisco Norinho, in Figueira da Foz, district of Coimbra where he found the land with the ideal conditions to implement the infrastructures suitable for the business. At the time, marketing was focused on baby eels, “a product that was legal at the time”, explains our host. With the arrival of the 21st century, the legacy passes to two of the founder's three children and receives a new designation: Irmãos Norinho, Lda. The faces of this family business have, since then, Jorge, Rafael's father and the “heart of the company”, And Vítor Norinho, responsible for the numbers.
The eel (adult), lamprey, and shad are the star products of Irmãos Norinho. As for importance, Rafael Norinho guarantees that they give primacy to Portuguese origin, namely shad. The three are sold live, hence the extreme care with distribution: “We are proud of what we do, especially in the delivery service, during which we also excel in quality”, guarantees Rafael Norinho. "We use fiber tanks made to measure in each van, which are equipped with a front air turbine, oxygen bottle, and an extra engine for air recycling, to guarantee the maximum quality of eels to our customers".
The company takes the same care with the product on the ground, that is, lampreys, for example, are not sold as soon as they are received in Irmãos Norinho's bowls. “They need to be in our tanks for two days before they are distributed because they are still very much suffering from being caught and also intoxicated, that is, they need to drop everything they digested in the passage from the sea to the river”, explains Rafael Norinho.
Irmãos Norinho will soon start selling fresh dawn eel. To this end, works are underway that will allow the implementation of new infrastructures to support this section, which will, in turn, contribute to increasing the number of workers from nine to eleven or 12 people, according to Rafael Norinho.
In addition to the trio of products mentioned above, this family business has, over time, added seafood, other fish - cod, included - and frozen meat. “In this case, it's all resale”, he clarifies.