Atlantic Sapphire USA has officially started the clock towards harvesting the first Florida-based salmon in 2020 with the introduction of 800,000 eggs to their hatchery.
The company – which is building a USD 350 million (EUR 307.7 million) recirculating aquaculture system in Miami, Florida – received the eggs in two batches of 400,000. The first batch, which arrived in late November, came from Iceland-based Stofnfiskur, while the second, which arrived 5 December, came from Norway-based Aquagen.
“This is a very big milestone for the company,” Atlantic Sapphire Finance Director Karl Øystein Øyehaug told SeafoodSource. “First of all, this marks the start of our production at our Miami site, after close to eight years of planning. The ‘biological clock’ has now started ticking for the first commercial salmon that will be harvest in Florida in 2020.”
Reaching the milestone also means that the company followed through on its promise to have eggs inside its hatchery in 2019.
“We said at the start of the year that we would put eggs in the hatchery this year – and delivered on it,” Øyehaug said.
Construction, said Øyehaug, is ongoing, with up to 200 people on the site every day working to get the initial phase of the facility ready.
“Parts of phase one are already completed, others are still being worked on. First harvest will be mid-2020, construction will mostly be finished in 2019, except for some parts like the slaughterhouse,” Øyehaug said.
The construction hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing, with delays occurring along the way, but those delays have been relatively minor, Øyehaug said.
“Naturally, with many different subcontractors to coordinate, there is always risk of delays, which we have encountered,” he said. “Although there are some bumps along the road, we are happy with the progress so far, and putting the eggs in hatchery is an important proof of this progress.”
That proof of progress is the reason that the investment bank DNB raised the share price of Atlantic Sapphire, as well as raising its estimate that the product will be successful from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Øyehaug said the company is on track to harvest its first salmon on schedule in 2020.
"Our U.S.-produced Atlantic Sapphire salmon can be expected to be in stores around mid-2020,” he said. “Until then consumers in the U.S. will keep receiving our salmon from Denmark.”
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Sapphire
