Farmed cobia (Rachycentron canadum) has long been tipped as a potential market changer thanks to its good versatility and an almost implausible growth rate. At the moment though, the species is still a long way off from fulfilling what many consider to be its true global potential.
One company hoping to change the fish’s fortunes is Panama-based Open Blue, which is raising its cobia in fully submerged cages in the deep waters off the country’s coast. Open Blue was founded in 2007 and began selling ocean-raised cobia to the U.S. market three years later. With carefully-chosen distributors in place, it is now about to embark on an ambitious launch into the U.K., French, German, Italian, Belgian, Dutch and Czech Republic markets.
“It’s quite an aggressive strategy that will see the product arrive into all those markets at the same time,” said Nicholas Sawyer, Open Blue’s European sales manager. “In each location, we have put a lot of time into choosing who best to partner with; in some countries we have one partner, in others we have more. It really depends on the market and its requirements, but throughout the process we have endeavored to differentiate ourselves from the traditional fish producer and exporter by taking a lot of care in establishing where our product ends up.”
To help publicize its product, Open Blue has established close ties with the Panamanian Embassy in each of the European markets. Promotional events in Paris, London and Brussels will be held later this month.
The European launch will also coincide with the opening of a sales office in the United Kingdom.
“We believe cobia can have a lot of success in Europe simply because it can be applied to so many different types of cuisine. It works as well in sushi as it does in Italian carpaccio and traditional fish and chips. When you cook it, it doesn’t dry out, while its firm texture allows you to cut it very thin. It’s highly versatile.
“There’s also this whole movement toward eating more omega-3s and a recent study out of Australia found that cobia has 2-3 times more omega-3 content than most other fish,” said Sawyer.
While part of the reason for the high omega-3 content is that Open Blue’s cobia diet currently comprises around 50 percent fishmeal and fish oil, Sawyer told SeafoodSource that one of the company’s main goals is to reduce its biological feed conversion ratio (BFCR) and to take a hardline approach toward this goal as well as to create an all-female population.
“By 2016, we expect to get to about 1.6 BFCR. In 2014, we averaged 2.37 BFCR, so we’re not that far off,” he said.
Further expansion
Open Blue’s market ambitions don’t end with Europe, Sawyer said. Eventually, the company wants to enter the Scandinavian and Russian markets, while a team that focuses on sales in Asia is now busy preparing to open an office in China.
In the long term, China will probably become its main market, followed by Europe and the United States, he said.
At the moment, Open Blue is selling cobia totaling 120 metric tons (MT) per month and one of its key objectives for 2016 is to ramp this up to the 200 to 220 MT mark.
The typical market size of its cobia is 4 to 5kg, which can be achieved in eight months to one year, thanks largely to the location of its cages.
“We spent five years selecting the right farm site because cobia really are the fish equivalent of an athlete. They need high oxygen saturation, the right temperature, fast currents and extremely clean water,” said Sawyer.
The company currently has 16 cages in the water and it’s expected this number will increase to 20 next year. The cages were developed especially for Open Blue’s cobia and are positioned 30 meters below the water surface.
“We have established a completely vertically integrated company – from egg to market – and with the recent completion of our new hatchery, we have the capacity to produce 15,000 MT of market-ready fish per year,” said Sawyer.
The company is now evaluating the potential for constructing a value-added facility in Panama.
“Today, we are a fresh business, selling H&G whole and round but our goal is to also be a value-added business and get into retail. To get to that point, everything has to be in place and we believe we will need our own frozen capabilities. Everything is shifting toward portions and if you just stay with the whole fresh business, the possibilities will become quite limiting,” said Sawyer.
“Other cobia farms have been tried. But to develop an open ocean cobia farm you need a long-term vision. It’s not a project for the fainthearted; it takes time and a lot of trial and error, but I believe we have reached that tipping point and once Europe and Asia take off, it will be a world-known product. It will be like turning a key – within eight months our production will be raised to whatever level we need.”
As for how much of its cobia will find its way to Europe, Open Blue has an expectation that it is guarding very closely, particularly as it has found that it is a tough market to forecast.
“Europe is changing every day. We have found that France is difficult for any new seafood product to penetrate, but at the same time the German, Italian and Czech Republic markets are jumping for our product,” said Sawyer.
He also added that because of the new hatchery’s capabilities, it is likely that cobia will eventually be followed with the production of other pelagic fish.
