A second land-based salmon company farm is being planned for the unified port of Boulogne-sur-Mer/Calais, on the north coast of France, which is the country’s largest fishing port and one of the top fish processing and distributing centers in Europe.
The USD 126 million (EUR 106 million) investment was announced in a public notice by Local Ocean, expressing the company’s interest in building a 15,000-metric-ton (MT) Atlantic salmon RAS facility. Initial output is expected to be more modest, and in the region of 8,500 MT. Around one-third of the cost of the new RAS project will be spent on purchasing a 45,500-square-meter site, and work is expected to start in the first half of 2021.
Local Ocean was first registered in Switzerland on 13 August, 2020, to “provide services in the construction and operation of fish farms.” Alain Olivier Treuer is listed as company chairman, and Werner Ranger as managing director.
The company plans to import juvenile salmon, which will be ongrown to market size of around five kilograms in the RAS facility. The fish will be processed on site, and feed into the distribution network in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Local Ocean said it expects high domestic demand for its fish, as the French are enthusiastic consumers of salmon, and France is one of Europe's largest markets for Norwegian and Scottish salmon imports.
The Société des Ports du Détroit (SEPD), an organization specially created to finance, build, and maintain Calais Port 2015 for 50 years, is an important facilitator of the project. The SEPD has as its stated ambition by January 2021 to provide the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer Calais with a “formidable port tool with multiple local, regional, national, and European benefits.” That tool includes new ferry and train terminals and development land for aquaculture and other seafood projects.
According to Voix du Nord, Boulogne-sur-Mer Mayor Frederic Cuvillier is enthusiastic about the project.
"Aquaculture in Boulogne-sur-Mar is a serious avenue, generating diversification and jobs. The Boulonnais agglomeration community [a public intermunicipal cooperation] will be there to help promoters of projects of this type," he said.
Earlier this year, Pure Salmon announced its own plans to build a USD 210 million (EUR 175 million) 10,000 MT land-based salmon farm in the same region. The company expects to start selling its first market-size salmon in 2023.
Photo courtesy of Local Ocean
