New York, U.S.A.-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) salmon producer LocalCoho, will close at the end of January 2025.
The company, formerly known as Finger Lakes Fish, raised salmon out of a 43,000- square-foot facility in Auburn, New York, U.S.A. and was one of the few U.S. companies to succeed in bringing land-based farmed salmon to the U.S. market. It had aspirations of supplying salmon to a 300-mile radius surrounding its Auburn facility, and to later establish a network of farms around the U.S.
Instead, on 24 January COO André Bravo announced, via LinkedIn, that the company is closing.
Bravo posted the news along with an article from New York Upstate, which described the work LocalCoho had done to donate 20,000 pounds of salmon filets to Central New York families before the closure.
“Seeing a company come to its end is never a good thing but, all things considered, this was an incredible and heart-warming outcome,” Bravo said in his post. He said the salmon donation was, however, “possibly the best [outcome] we could have asked for.”
The New York Upstate article Bravo shared focused on the logistical challenge of getting all of LocalCoho’s stock, most of which were still alive in its facility’s pools, processed and ready for distribution via the Food Bank of Central New York in only three weeks time. With only 12 LocalCoho employees to manage the donation, the endevour required more than 100 volunteers, as well as help from other small businesses, including a beverage company which volunteered its refrigerator trucks.
Among the congratulations and thanks expressed in response to Bravo’s post were those who celebrated the company’s accomplishments in demonstrating that Coho salmon could be successfully raised in a RAS facility.
In 2019, LocalCoho became the first RAS coho salmon farm to be awarded a Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification, and it was later rated as a “best choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. Its coho was featured on the menus of discerning sushi chefs, including at New York City’s Nobu.
As it piloted its Auburn facility, the company was supported by a number of prominent investors including Rodger May, Per Heggelund, Jim Murphy, and Bob Tobin, as well as aquaculture-focused investment firm Cuna del Mar, which made a major investment in the company in fall 2023.
Though the company’s CEO left in November for Seremoni Fish, there were no apparent indicators that LocalCoho would soon close. The company made news in early January, hosting Chinese aquaculture and feed mill representatives as part of a visit organized by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC).
Bravo’s LinkedIn post did not allude to the reasons for the company’s closure; instead, he thanked the LocalCoho team and celebrated the business’s successes.
“I walk away knowing that we have done everything in our power to succeed, but also highly energized to leverage the lessons learned, aiming at bringing back to life the vision behind LocalCoho,” Bravo wrote.