Bergen, Norway-based land-based salmon-farming company Proximar Seafood has announced the hiring of former Atlantic Sapphire Chief Operating Officer Dharma Rajeswaran.
Rajeswaran will take up the COO role at Proximar on 1 January, 2022. He will be based in Japan, where Proximar started the construction of its land-based aquaculture facility close to Japan’s Mount Fuji in March 2021.
Rajeswaran has worked with recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for 10 years, most recently with Atlantic Sapphire in the United States, and has more than 30 years of experience producing Atlantic salmon – from conventional farming in Norway and also from land-based systems. Rajeswaran went from serving as COO to chief of staff at Atlantic Sapphire in March 2021, and then left the company in September following a challenging year for the company.
“We are very pleased to have Rajeswaran joining our team,” Proximar CEO Joachim Nielsen said. “He is one of the most-experienced people in the industry when it comes to onshore farming of Atlantic salmon. This, combined with his 30 years of experience with salmon farming, makes us further confident in a successful execution.”
In Japan, Rajeswaran will continue building the company’s operational team and preparing for the facility’s operational start-up, which is expected to take place in the third quarter of 2022. According to the company, the ongoing construction is going according to plan, both on time and on budget.
“I am very excited to be joining the Proximar team in a couple of weeks. The combination of the location, the people, and technology have been important aspects of my decision. Furthermore, I am truly impressed to see how the RAS system from AquaMaof is built up and operated,” Rajeswaran said. “The performance is impressive.”
The company said the first eggs will be introduced to Proximar’s facility in Q3 2022, and the first harvest is expected in the first half of 2024.
In July 2021, Benchmark Genetics signed a three-year agreement to supply salmon ova to the new farm. These eggs will be produced at Benchmark’s facility in Iceland. Proximar signed an extension to its memorandum of understanding with the Marubeni Corporation for the distribution of its Atlantic salmon in November 2021.
Photo courtesy of Proximar Seafood
