October 3, 2019

By Lynda Kiernan

Dutch sustainable aquaculture-focused investment fund Aqua-Spark announced its investment in Fisher Piscicultura (Fisher), an impact-driven tilapia farm based in Brazil. 

Founded in 2011, Fisher’s team has deep cross-collective expertise in agribusiness, the Brazilian electric industry, and water management. With this knowledge behind them, they were the first to farm on the Aqua Vernelha, a man-made reservoir highly suitable for tilapia farming.

Known for its innovative, new cage system, Fisher integrates automatic feeders and hyper-efficient grading systems into its aluminum cages, which are sturdier and more resilient against predators and severe weather events, and which are kept buoyant through the use of recycled PET bottles. This system offers distinct advantages in lower labor costs, better animal welfare, better than average production benchmarks, and increased growth.

“Aquaculture is booming in Brazil, and we’ve been keen to help the Brazilian sector develop sustainably — especially where Tilapia is concerned,” said Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, co-founders of Aqua-Spark. “Tilapia farming has been in practice for thousands of years, and the species is one of the most consumed fish in the world.”

Also founded in 2011 (the same year as Fisher), Aqua-Spark has grown to become an investment force with a mission to transform the global aquaculture value chain into a sector that is more sustainable, healthier, and more accessible. Since 2015 the fund has invested in 17 complementary SMEs that span farming, alternative feed ingredients, disease prevention and treatment, and consumer-facing aquaculture products, and has accumulated EUR 95.6 (US$10 million) in assets under management.

“Because Tilapia is so well-known and naturally suited to aquaculture — when farms choose to get it right — it can be truly sustainably produced,” said Velings and Novogratz. “As our second investment in Tilapia, Fisher impressed us with its commitment to creating the best possible operation for fish and their local community.”

As the primary investor in this round, Aqua-Spark’s capital investment will be used by Fisher to help expand production capacity on its farm six-fold, from 50 to 300 tons per month, using its novel cage system to streamline and automate production methods. Fisher is also currently developing an integrated production unit – which creates a vertically-integrated site with cages, feed mill, processing plant, rendering plant, and infrastructure all at a single location.

“Brazil has all the requirements needed to become a world leader in aquaculture –water, feed ingredients, proper climate, and a large internal market,” said Alexandre Pulino, co-founder of Fisher. “To make the best of our local conditions, we need to develop our own technology package as we did for other agroindustries. With the help of Aqua-Spark, we believe that in the near future our cage in combination with integrated producers’ systems can become the leading technology of the Brazilian sector.”