Recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) specialist AquaMaof has announced the beginning of construction on Proximar Seafood’s land-based Atlantic salmon farm near Mt. Fuji in Yama, Japan.
The facility will have a capacity of 26,400 metric tons (MT) of annual production and will include a hatchery, nursery, and full grow-out areas, as well as management, operational, and processing zones. The first harvest is expected in 2024, AquaMaof said in a press release.
AquaMaof has worked on the design of the facility since 2016, with the goal of including the “very latest advancements in AquaMaof’s RAS technology,” the company said.
Construction was initiated after Bergen, Norway-based Proximar Seafood AS conducted a private placement of more than 24 million shares of stock, raising NOK 400 million (USD 47.3 million, EUR 39 million). The company also announced a successful listing on the Euronext Growth Exchange under the symbol PROXI on 3 February. Proximar’s newly issued shares were sold at NOK 16.20 (USD 1.92, EUR 1.58), giving the company a market capitalization of NOK 645 million (USD 75.6 million, EUR 62.7 million).
“Listing on Euronext Growth is an important milestone for Proximar,” Proximar CEO Joachim Nielsen said. “Our location at the foot of the iconic Mount Fuji, just over an hour outside Tokyo, means that you do not have to transport Atlantic salmon by plane over half the globe. This not only means lower costs, but also has great significance for the environment.”
Proximar has said its proceeds from the private placement are “not sufficient to fully finance the construction of the Phase 1 facility and the company thus relies on further financing,” but its initial fundraising has allowed building on the project to begin.
“We are excited with the commencement of the construction stage of our facility in Japan, together with AquaMaof as our technology partner for this project,” Nielson said. “We appreciate their continued support and are confident that this stage will be carried out at the same level of proficiency that characterized the design stage.”
AquaMaof CEO David Hazut said his company is a proud partner in the project, one of the first RAS facilities to be built in Japan.
“We would like to congratulate the Proximar team on a successful IPO,” Hazut said. “We are pleased and honored to kick-off the construction stage and to continue to support the Proximar team on their visionary mission.”
The Proximar project is the latest of several active AquaMaof RAS projects in the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, and Chile, with a combined capacity of more than 65,000 metric tons, the company said.
Photo courtesy of Euronext Growth
