Busan, South Korea-based BluGen’s recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) olive flounder farm will be built by Tromsø, Norway-based SIFT Group.
The two companies signed an agreement under which SIFT Group will provide a RAS system equipped with super intensive farming technology, which optimizes the growth environment for fish even in high-density environments.
Korean aquaculture genomics technology company BluGen announced in November 2022 it is seeking to build a land-based farm in Goheung, South Korea, to grow at least 1,000 metric tons (MT) of olive flounder annually. BluGen is an aquaculture genomics technology company that has grown eight generations of olive flounder Broodstock.
“It has been a long discovery process in identifying our farming system and RAS technology partner. We spent a significant amount of time reviewing SIFT both on and off site. Ultimately, we decided that SIFT Group’s technology, design, team, and approach are the best fit and specific to our species and project.” BluGen Founder and CEO Woo-Jai Lee said in a press release. “For BluGen and its investors, partnering with SIFT Group is attractive, as the SIFT system is operationally proven in commercial-level production for a variety of fish species relevant to BluGen’s project. In addition to SIFT Group’s own pilot facilities, various farms in Europe have been using the SIFT system for commercial production of sole and turbot for the past decade with optimal economic results and very low mortality rates. BluGen will be adopting a similar systems design, but with upgraded technological components.”
SIFT has developed a system of stacked raceways, water-flow controls, and advanced water treatment units that allow for higher biomass densities of up to 100 to 300 kilograms per square meter, even for some pelagic species. The SIFT system can optimize BluGen’s production to reach as much as 1,700 MT of production annually, or even more, it said.
“For BluGen’s olive flounder, a non-pelagic species, SIFT’s shallow raceways are well-suited for controlled and stable growth conditions, all the while maximizing production,” the company said.
SIFT is also developing its own 10,000-MT land-based farm growing Atlantic salmon in Tromsø. It has already built a pilot facility capable of growing 1,000 MT and has received a license from the Norwegian government to allow it to expand its technology to a larger-scale facility.
In South Korea, the structure housing BluGen’s growth system is about 75 percent complete, with construction slated to end this summer. SFT is planning to install the testbed in July 2023 and SIFT has scheduled delivery and build-out of the full RAS production unit for 2024, assuming trials of the testbed are successful.
“The agreement with BluGen is very important for us,” SIFT Group Co-Founder and CEO Torbjørn Trondsen said. “After many years of research and development, the vertical SIFT design has proven to deliver cost-efficient production factors for both bottom-dwelling and pelagic aquaculture fish species by high utilization of land, with far more fish production per square meter of land, better degassing, and less use of make-up water. The agreement with BluGen is our first international delivery that will be implemented at the same time as we are building our own SIFT farm for salmon in Norway.”
Photo courtesy of BluGen
