ORIGINS OF THE PORTUGUESE CANNING INDUSTRY

Portugal's canning industry was born at the beginning of the 19th century when a method for preserving food in a closed metallic container was invented and patented. From that moment on, the history of that industry merges with the intimate relationship the Portuguese have with the sea.

It all started over 150 years ago with the invention of the tin can—a process started by the Frenchman Nicolas Appert and finally patented by Englishman Peter Duran in 1810. That moment saw the birth of a whole new industry. The abundance of high-quality fish, caught along Portugal's extensive coast line, created the natural conditions for the appearance of the country's first canneries.

That status was consolidated by exports, mainly during the First and Second World Wars, making Portuguese canned goods famous around the world as part of a business sector that, at one point, was the second largest in the economy of its day. It was a time that saw Portuguese industry flourish with factories spreading across the country.

FROM THE PASSION FOR THE SEA AND TRADITION, COMUR WAS BORN

Traditions have always been Comur's greatest source of inspiration. That inspiration is closely tied to Portugal's age-old relationship with the sea, with its wonderful flavours and the centuries-old knowledge that made Portuguese canning so rich, so special, and renowned worldwide. Comur was born in 1942 to embody this passion and respect for tradition.

Comur's roots are closely tied to the region around Aveiro and the unique relationship its inhabitants have with the fishing tradition centred on its iconic Ria (lagoon). The abundance of eels gave rise to the famous fried eel preserved in a vinegary "escabeche" sauce, an important source of income for families in that region at the time. The delicacy was created by the hands of the incomparable "Murtosa Fryers", the guardians of this ancestral knowledge, who spread their wares throughout the region's fairs, most notably St Matthew's Fair in Viseu.

Comur was born precisely out of a genuine desire to preserve and promote all this tradition, organizing the canning activity and the Murtosa Fryers and granting them their rightful status as creators of gourmet food under a single entity.

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EIGHTY YEARS OF HISTORY IN A FANTASTIC WORLD

In 2015, The Value of Time Group embarked on this journey following the dream of recovering the splendour of the canning industry, working to ensure economic, social and human sustainability, to preserve and value those traditions and people that make Comur unique in the world.

The people who continue to work at Comur hold within them the memory of canning tradition. People with Portuguese soul, whose hands perform what the heart dictates. People who, for the most part, cycle to the factory each day, as their mothers and grandmothers did, and for whom manual labour carries the art and weight of generations that follow each other in Comur's long narrative. Matilde, who has worked here for 46 years and is the factory's most senior worker, Adriana and Susana, her daughters, and Daniela, one of the granddaughters, are some of the many women who write Comur's history every day and for who are part of this Fantastic World.

Today, that world extends its horizons far beyond Aveiro, reflecting a deep-seated love for the region but specially for the Portuguese sea. Comur currently produces around thirty varieties of canned goods, working closely and fairly with the fishermen who bring in the fish that is then worked carefully by the experienced wise hands of the canners using old artisanal methods that have been preserved over more than eighty years.

Canned goods that travel across the world from shops located in town and city centres in Portugal and in New York's iconic Times Square.

THE COMUR MUSEUM

The Murtosa Museum is a journey through the histories of Portugal's canning industry and the Comur Factory.

Discover the museum

What used to be the Murtosa "Eel Factory" is now a Museum that was created to pay tribute to the people and traditions who form the foundations of Comur. An expedition along the history of the factory and its community, where you can find out about the development of the canning industry throughout the decades and about the entire process, from the moment the fish arrives to the production of the tin cans.

Be delighted at the Comur Museum and book your visit here.

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