Premium tilapia farmer Regal Springs has faced difficulties in its operations in Mexico and Honduras, but the worst is over, according to Vernon Bradley, the company’s head of marketing and media relations.
In Honduras, the company faced high mortality in 2022 and 2023, as well as a government push to eliminate industrial activity on Lake Yojoa, one of the two lakes on which Regal Springs operated. As a result, it will now only operate on Lake El Cajón but will seek to expand production there, with the assistance of local company leadership, Bradley said.
“Lake El Cajón offers bountiful opportunity as a ‘remote’ land very large lake,” he told SeafoodSource in an email. “The transition from two lakes to one lake is well in hand.”
Mexico has been an even larger challenge for Regal Springs, with record-high water temperatures in Lake Malpaso resulting in reduced oxygen levels.
“Output is now back on the upward trend. The company is exploring, and ultimately pioneering, new technologies that strengthen oxygen supply. Lake Malpaso was rested for one year between 2022 and 2023 in line with best practice [and came] back on stream only a few months ago. This will help lift harvest capacity,” Bradley said.
Regal Springs’ Indonesian operations, focused on producing loins for a line of products sold at Costco, are also under new leadership.
“It’s a long-established, unique product performing well, with record outputs,” Bradley said. “The new farming team brought on board in 2023 are proving their value in securing strong record harvests.”
Bradley said Regal Springs will continue to focus on business-to-business sales.
“[They] will remain the bedrock of commercial activities for some time to come, but we [are] now mak[ing] first inroads in the business-to-consumer segment with the Regal Springs brand,” he said. “It is early days, but the response from customers and consumers has been strong.”
Regal Springs launched three added-value products in August under the Regal Springs brand: a beer-battered product, a panko-crusted item, and Crispy Seasoned Tenders; it is also working on others.
“These premium products, targeted toward higher-income families, satisfy the need for great protein in convenient tasty form. They come to market with the expert processing help of [Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based] Channel Fish,” he said.
Additionally, Regal Springs is seeking to build up its local markets in Mexico and Indonesia, with promising results thus far, according to Bradley.
“The Mexico market is rich in opportunity. Our Tilapia Fajitas and new premium Regal Springs Loins [are] in constant high demand. Our fajitas are an easy concept for consumers to digest as the taco is engrained with Spanish culture; the product is currently sold under the Regal Springs Mojarra Mexicana brand … with a solid performance in Sam’s Club, among others, we now look to expand availability to other select retailers,” he said. “Indonesia is a mainstream export business, but it is also in the embryonic stages of B2C development with Regal Springs brand listings in a few major accounts only. We now look to extend the Regal Springs portfolio and presence – step by step. We naturally highlight the fact that the Regal brand is of local origin and ‘the pride of Indonesia.’”
Bradley called 2024 “a great year” for the company’s European division.
“Tilapia has a very low awareness base [in Europe], but thanks to a strong B2B listing with the Green King pub chain, which has 2,700 outlets in the U.K., our premium tilapia is now part of their fish ‘n chips offering, replacing other whitefish species,” he said. “Following market tests, the contract has been extended accordingly, and we now embrace the challenge with Green King to introduce tilapia as a named species.”
Elsewhere, Regal Springs’ byproducts division received a “strong facelift” and is now marketing products under the Regal Springs Natural Addition banner.
Regal Springs President and CEO Alois Hofbauer said these changes are geared toward delivering on the company’s slogan of “doing well by doing good” by driving production and sales of premium tilapia “on the back of well-established roots in sustainability,” as outlined in the company’s first global impact report, issued in July.
“Aquaculture has many a challenge, but whether B2B – our bedrock – or B2C, what we look to secure is scale and critical mass via solid partnerships with those who share the same social ethical values as ourselves,” Hofbauer said.” Not only do we have a duty to deliver healthy food but a duty to deliver a better world for future generations to come.”
