HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries (HQS) on Wednesday announced that its tilapia grow-out operations and shrimp and tilapia processing facilities in China’s Hainan province have received Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
“HQ Sustainable is one of only a handful of tilapia producers in the world to receive this certification,” said William More, president and director of the Aquaculture Certification Council, the third-party certification body that audits fish farms against the BAP, a set of environmental, social and food-safety standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
HQS also released its second-quarter results earlier this week, in which the Seattle-based company’s sales increased by 10 percent, to USD 16 million (EUR 11.3 million).
The company’s profit also increased to USD 6.8 million (EUR 4.9 million) this year from USD 5 million (EUR 3.5 million) last year, while its operating income jumped from USD 148,840 (EUR 104,843) in 2008 to USD 2.8 million (EUR 2 million) in 2009.
“The second quarter once again saw strong top-line growth across our business segments, and though our net income was adversely affected by new accounting rules, we believe that this revenue growth demonstrates the significant leverage that our business model continues to hold,” said HQS CEO Norbert Sporns.
“Highlights for the second quarter also included very favorable increases in our gross profit margins,” he added. “Fueling this leverage and our continued vertical integration was the recent completion of our feed mill. This addition renders our feed the most effective feed available in China to tilapia farmers, reducing feed cost for farmers while guaranteeing for consumers quality at a very high level.”
