8F Asset Management Building US$162M Land-Based Salmon Farm in Japan as First in Global Plan

November 9, 2018

Since 1980, global consumption of salmon has more than tripled as demand for protein also climbs. And as wild stock grow more depleted, salmon farming is stepping in to bridge the gap between market demand and production.

Amid this backdrop, investment firm 8F Asset Management announced its plans to invest US$162 million to build an industrial-scale salmon farm in Japan that will be the first in a global plan of expansion.

Based in Singapore, 8F manages a pure-play fund solely dedicated to investing in land-based RAS Atlantic salmon farming operations.

The production and processing  project, which will be managed by Pure Salmon, an enterprise established by 8F Asset Management, will be named ‘Soul of Japan’ and will be located in Tsu, Japan.

“The project is a major step in our global mission to reduce reliance on sea-farmed salmon and offer a healthier, more environmentally-friendly option,” said Martin Fothergill, co-founder and partner of 8F.

Once completed within the next few years, the fully integrated land-based salmon farming facility will be the largest to use a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in Asia. The site will total approximately 137,000 square meters, and will include hatcheries, grow-out operations, and processing capabilities, and is expected to have an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons.

“We start building next year, and then it becomes fully operational in 2021, so we’ll be having the first harvests in 2022. And we’re not going to increase capacity in phases – it will be built full-size on day one,” Fothergill told Undercurrent News.

Soul of Japan will be the first endeavor in a string of global land-based salmon farming projects for 8F, which has set a target for total annual production of 260,000 tons.

“We are developing a global business in the aquaculture sector, to produce Atlantic salmon in a clean, bio-secure way — free of antibiotics and pollution from the seas,” Karim Ghannam, co-founder of 8F, told Hubbis in August of this year.

The RAS system used in the project is proprietary technology developed by Israeli firm AquaMaof Aquaculture Technologies, which trialed the technology in Poland through a project called Global Fish. Since its launch in 2016, Global Fish has produced multiple batches of harvest-sized salmon, reports Undercurrent News.

The location of Soul of Japan has been thoroughly considered; being in proximity to Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, the company will be able to take advantage of cost savings from not having to ship its salmon over long distances to end users.

8F is already planning its next phase of expansion, with an eye toward the U.S., where it intends to build a salmon farming operation that is double the size of Soul of Japan with output of 20,000 tons. Additional facilities are in the pipeline for the EU and China as well.

-Lynda Kiernan

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.

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