Lighthouse Finance, a Norwegian firm providing financing for seafood projects, has said the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak may affect the timing of the new recirculating aquaculture (RAS) projects it is working on.
Lighthouse has put millions of dollars of investment into the aquaculture industry in recent years, structuring transactions and raising money to finance the construction of land-based integrated recirculating aquaculture (RAS) commercial fish farms around the world.
The company is financing projects for established and early-stage seafood companies throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including a 10,000-metric-ton RAS salmon farm in Vietnam, in partnership with Dong Nam Investment, SEA Aquaculture, Singapore-based AquAgro Projects, and Israeli RAS tech specialist AquaMaof.
Earlier this month, Lighthouse and the Municipality of Sotenäs in Sweden said they were collaborating to "start a multi-billion-[dollar] class establishment” in Sweden, SeafoodSource reported.
The project, which will cost SEK 17 billion to SEK 20 billion (USD 1.6 billion to USD 1.9 billion, EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 1.8 billion), will be the largest in Europe. It will include two 40,000-metric-ton (MT) farming facilities, one with a capacity of 20,000 MT, plus feed production, processing, and waste treatment plants.
Groundwork on the project is expected to begin in 2021, with production starting in 2023. Production at the farms is projected to increase to 100,000 MT of Atlantic salmon per year within five years, with fish destined for exports.
However, as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the Vietnam project is on hold and it remains to be seen whether the timetable for the Swedish project can be maintained, Lighthouse Director of Investment and Communications Courtney Bosh told SeafoodSource in an email.
“COVID-19 has really put a general question mark on the timing for most new RAS projects. Hopefully, this changes as the market rebounds in coming months,” Bosh said.
Bosh declined to answer further questions about the status of Lighthouse’s RAS projects.
As of 30 March, the COVID-19 pandemic, which began as an outbreak seen in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has caused deaths to more than 34,000 people globally, with over 700,000 confirmed cases in many countries in the world, South China Morning Post reported on 30 March.
