COURTESY / KINGFISH MAINE video screenshot
Kingfish Maine proposes to grow 8,500 tons of yellowtail kingfish in Jonesport.
Updated: November 30, 2021
Kingfish aquaculture deal in Jonesport moves forward with property purchase
COURTESY / KINGFISH MAINE
Seen here is a rendering of Kingfish Maine’s planned land-based aquaculture facility in Jonesport.
Two years after the Kingfish Co. identified Jonesport as its preferred U.S. location to build a land-based aquaculture facility with nearby seawater, the Dutch company has finalized the purchase of a 94-acre site.
The facility will be designed to serve as a U.S. hub to grow yellowtail kingfish, a versatile fish species well known in Italian and Asian fusion cuisines, according to a news release.
The company, the largest yellowtail kingfish producer in the European Union, on Monday announced it had concluded the land purchase, with an eye toward building its first production facility in the U.S. The fish farm would operate under the name of subsidiary Kingfish Maine.
The Kingfish Co. bought the land from W.W. Wood Properties for $1.25 million, a spokesperson told Mainebiz in a separate email.
The transaction closed Nov. 18. Early site work and groundbreaking is expected to be early in 2022, with construction taking up to three years.
Plans call for the site to include a fish culture complex with support buildings surrounding it. The largest building would be about 500,000 square feet.
At full operation, it’s anticipated the facility will support between 70 and 100 full-time jobs, as well as jobs during the construction phase.
Danish firm Ramboll Engineering was selected for pre-construction design and engineering.
The purchase followed the approval of two final permits from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that enabled Kingfish Maine to advance to pre-construction design and engineering on schedule. Both permits were obtained earlier this year.
The company’s expansion strategy is focused on “technology-driven local production of high-value seafood” in the European Union and the U.S., Ohad Maiman, the company’s founder and CEO, said in the release.
The goal is to establish seafood production for U.S. retailers and food service operations. In recent months, Kingfish confirmed a U.S. nationwide retail partnership with Whole Foods to sell the company’s yellowtail product at all locations across the country.
Kingfish was founded in 2015 and has been operating a commercial-scale facility in the Netherlands, using a proprietary recirculating aquaculture system.
In November 2019, the company announced the proposal for a $110 million land-based aquaculture facility in Jonesport, and since then has secured funding for the plant.
The Jonesport site is at 9 Dun Garvin Road, near Chandler Bay on Route 187, roughly 5 miles from the center of town. Part of the site consists of blueberry fields.
In the Netherlands, the Kingfish Co.'s annual production capacity is 1,500 tons. Expansion of the Dutch facility is underway and capacity there is expected to reach 3,500 tons in the second half of 2022.
The goal for the Jonesport plant is to reach approximately 8,500 tons. The Maine subsidiary will use the same technology as the Dutch plant.
Production is based on advanced recirculating aquaculture systems. At its operation in the Netherlands, the fish are grown without use of antibiotics and vaccines. Operations run on 100% renewable energy, sourced from wind, solar and biogas. The company’s facilities operate on seawater.
COURTESY / KINGFISH MAINE video screenshot
Seen here are hatchery operations at Kingfish Co.’s facility in the Netherlands.
Its products are certified and approved as sustainable and environmentally friendly by Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Best Aquaculture Practices and British Retail Consortium.
Two other land-based recirculating aquaculture operations have received permits in Maine — Nordic Aquafarms in Belfast and Whole Oceans in Bucksport. Both aim to raise Atlantic salmon.
Last December, Whole Oceans announced a proposal to expand plans for its site, located at the former Verso paper mill.
Earlier this month, the Nordic Aquafarms proposal was expected to proceed to final project planning, after a dispute over a patch of shoreline mudflats was resolved late last month.
Another large-scale Atlantic salmon farm is proposed by Norway-based American Aquafarms as a net-pen operation in the waters of Frenchman Bay.
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