NANAIMO – Taste of BC Aquafarms has signed a two-year agreement to supply steelhead salmon fingerlings to another company for approximately $1 million.
Taste of BC Aquafarms, which operates a land-based fish farm on Jameson Road, produces the Little Cedar Falls steelhead salmon farm brand. It is a subsidiary of Blue Star Foods Corp. Taste of BC is the oldest continuously operating Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) full grow-out salmon farm in North America.
“We appreciate the vote of confidence from this local steelhead producer whom we have known for many years,” says Taste of BC founder Steve Atkinson. “It is an acknowledgement that we have mastered the early rearing cycle that is so critical in overall growth performance of these fish. We are seeing consistent results that others in our space have not in terms of the end-quality of our steel-head salmon product.
“This agreement is strategic as our company prepares to scale up with our new 1,500 MT facility. This opportunity allows us to enter into a segment that gives us higher margins and shorter production cycle,” Atkinson explains. “At 4 months production verses 12 for grow out, market sized fish, our risk is greatly reduced. Additionally, the price per pound gained for fingerlings is exponentially greater than that for full sized fish.”
