Jumbo white shrimp bring big promises of “green” jobs to Fellsmere and Green Cards to a few dozen foreign investors, most of them Chinese.
This tiny rural city — population 5,400 — pins much of its economic future on a planned commerce park, with a USD 16 million organic shrimp farm as the flagship.
They hope shrimp just like those that leap from a huge tank at Florida Tech’s Vero Beach Marine Lab can rejuvenate and diversify a citrus-based economy often plagued by canker, citrus “greening” and weather extremes.
“That’s what we’re hoping is that this becomes sort of an epicenter for this type of activity and research,” Fellsmere City Manager Jason Nunemaker said.
If grants come through and the methods Florida Organic Aquaculture tests at the Vero lab prove effective, the Jupiter-based company could deliver fresh, chemical-free jumbo shrimp and jobs to the local market by the middle of next year. Company officials say they’ll create an estimated 60 jobs on the farm and another 512 jobs from associated economic activity.
They plan to grow organic Pacific white shrimp — without antibiotics or chemicals — in a series of large tanks in enclosed greenhouse structures, filtering the water with oysters and ultimately recirculating it back into the shrimp tanks. They’ll also put the wastewater into lined wetlands to grow salicornia, a high-protein sea asparagus that makes good cattle fodder and a tasty salad herb that sells for up to USD 12 per pound.
For foreign investors, the shrimp farm is a pathway to a Green Card. A federal program provides permanent residence status for foreigners who invest at least USD 500,000 into a venture in a targeted rural area, if the investment secures or creates at least 10 jobs within two years.
“They’re buying into the American dream,” Nunemaker said.
