Nordic Aquafarms, a Norwegian company operating 3 yellowtail kingfish facilities in Norway and Denmark, has decided to expand its yellowtail kingfish business to Humboldt County, California, where its project site is currently in the permitting phase. Nordic Aquafarms has operated a yellowtail kingfish hatchery and a grow-out facility in Denmark since 2017 and will transfer knowledge and broodstock from these operations to California.
“We see a great potential for yellowtail kingfish in the US and we are looking forward to bringing the knowledge from our Scandinavian farms to California. We have good biological results in Scandinavia, the market for this fantastic product is strong, and the property in Humboldt County is unique on the West Coast with its existing infrastructure.
A yellowtail kingfish farm can be profitable at smaller scale, due to its higher prices and strong performance in RAS systems, enabling us to develop a smaller facility than planned for salmon, that can be expanded alongside the growing market,” says CEO of Nordic Aquafarms, Bernt Olav Røttingsnes.
“The US West Coast is the largest market for yellowtail kingfish outside of Japan, and we are looking forward to introducing a locally produced product of high quality to this important market. Within 12 hours of trucking distance, we can serve fresh fish to more than 50 million potential customers,” says Brenda Chandler, CEO of Nordic Aquafarms USA, a subsidiary of Nordic Aquafarms.
Following completion of the permitting process, the company plans for construction of a 2,000-3,000MT facility as phase 1. Fully built out, the facility may produce above 10,000MT yellowtail kingfish annually.
The property at Samoa Peninsula has access to two sea chests, an outfall pipe, and a substation with sufficient capacity for delivery of electricity. The remaining permits are expected to be granted within the next 15 months.
Nordic Aquafarms Europa has produced salmon at Fredrikstad Seafoods in Norway since 2019. The last salmon was harvested earlier in 2023 and Fredrikstad Seafoods is now preparing for production of yellowtail kingfish, expected to start in July 2023.
The ownership of the project in California will be transferred from Nordic Aquafarms Group to Nordic Aquafarms Europe together with ownership of the RAS engineering team in Nordic Aquafarms Technology (NAF Tech). NAF Tech will be responsible for the technical design of the US farm.