“It will be the most sustainable and reliable technology for culturing shrimp. Homegrown shrimp, our subsidiary in the USA, undertakes technologies that will culture shrimp anywhere in the world and in any season,” said Robins McIntosh, executive vice president at CPF.
While shrimp farms are normally located near the coast, the Homegrown shrimp farm will be at an inland location, using artificial sea water.
Both the hatchery and farm will be totally enclosed within a sealed temperature-controlled building, allowing for shrimp culture at the optimum 30°C year-round. The farm will be equipped with automation and mechanical processes to provide more efficient operation and reduce manpower.
Moreover, the farm will recycle all the water thereby economising the salts for making artificial sea water and permitting licensing in even the most environmentally restrictive jurisdictions. All waste will be captured and processed to an inert disposable product or possibly used as a byproduct for other applications.
CPF intends to use sustainable feeds which contain neither marine ingredient nor soybeans from sensitive areas, according to McIntosh.
The farm will be managed on the basis of the “domesticated floc” technology used in the broodstock grow-out farms, and will stock the fast growing “CPF Turbo” post-larvae.
Homegrown shrimp plans to produce four crop cycles annually, with a yield of 20-25 kilograms/m2 in 8,000 m2 of tank area, which will yield 190 tonnes of fresh shrimp per year.
“We are anticipating a minimum selling price of $15 per kg or a revenue of $2.85 million per year. Eventually with the 20 hectares of land, we could have 5 farming units and the hatchery for a total production of 950 tonnes per year and revenues of $14. 25 million per year,” McIntosh said.
