The Kingfish Company is continuing with its expansion plans, even as it copes with the drastic changes COVID-19 has wrought on the global foodservice sector.
The company, formerly known as Kingfish Zeeland until a name-change earlier this year, is on track with its timeline for expansion of its recirculating aquaculture system farm in Kats, the Netherlands, which is expanding so it will have capacity to produce 5,000 metric tons (MT) of yellowtail kingfish annually.
“Expansion in the Netherlands continues full steam ahead and advancing as planned,” the company said on LinkedIn.
The company has contracted with Billund Aquaculture and Van der Straaten Aannemingsmaatschappij on the project.
In a separate announcement, The Kingfish Company said it had landed a contract to supply all seven Whole Foods stores in the United Kingdom. The kingfish fillets will be sold in fillet form and will be marked with the Whole Foods’ Responsibly Farmed seal, which registers it as in compliance with Whole Foods standards for sustainability for farmed finfish.
“We are proud to have met some of the strictest requirements for seafood in retail, and excited to offer U.K. retail customers a fresh, local, and healthy fish that they can now enjoy at home,” Kingfish Company CEO Ohad Maiman said. “Sustainability and quality of product have been guiding principles for The Kingfish Company from inception, leading to substantial efforts made to become the first yellowtail kingfish farm to attain Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), and BRC certifications, to operate on 100 percent renewable energy, and to raise our fish without antibiotics.”
Despite the Whole Foods agreement, the coronavirus outbreak has taken a toll on the compan. Sales were off between 20 and 30 percent, Maiman said in an email to SeafoodSource, but have since bounced back.
In response to most foodservice channels being closed, the company decided to ramp up use of its newly installed cryo-freezing capacity “to build up stocks for the day after the world returns to normal,” according to Maiman. But the company has largely returned to its normal production routine, he said.
"While we did freeze small amounts of products for existing long-term clients, our fast pivot to retail allowed us to return from 70 to 80 percent in April to full capacity pre-COVID sales volumes by late May,” Maiman said.
Last year, The Kingfish Company said it would seek to build a 15- to 20-acre, state-of-the-art RAS facility on a 90-acre site in Jonesport, Maine, U.S.A.
Maiman said the company "continues to work towards permit submission in Maine.
Photo courtesy of The Kingfish Company
