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    South Africans bid farewell to Redro and Pecks fish paste

    South Africans will have to say goodbye to Peck's Anchovette and Redro fish paste for the foreseeable future as Pioneer Foods, the local distributor of Peck's and manufacturer of the South African equivalent Redro, has ceased production of the once-iconic products.
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    Source: Screenshot

    In an emailed response to Bizcommunity, Pioneer Foods, which is owned by PepsiCo following a $1.7bn acquisition, said the company made the decision to discontinue production of its Redro and Pecks fish paste products towards the end of last year.

    "This was part of our ongoing portfolio review. We communicated this to our customers, stopped production and discontinued the sale of related items in December 2021," commented Mandy Murphy, category manager: foods at PepsiCo sub-Saharan Africa.

    Murphy added that the company is in the process of finalising the sale of the related assets/brands to a third party.

    SA consumers hoping to get their hands on the last jars of Pecks and Redro in-store may need to trawl local retailers while the last remaining stock is still available on shelves.

    As Business Insider South Africa reports, Peck's Anchovette, originally from the United Kingdom, dates back to 1891. It only arrived in South Africa in the 1960s, and until then, South Africans cosied up Redro, a local fish spread developed from a local family recipe in the 1930s Business Insider adds that when Pecks gained traction locally, Redro was downgraded to a more “value for money” fish paste alternative.

    No mention of the history of Redro should exclude a reference to one of SA's iconic early TV commercials, the 'Redro - It's Everything You Love' ad:

    Consumer sentiment on social media seems to reflect that fish paste can indeed be a divisive topic - with some people lamenting the brands' departure from shelves and others welcoming it. See some of the public reactions below:

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