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Taste of BC Aquafarms takes one step closer to new RAS farm

Blue Star Foods Corp. has announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, Taste of BC Aquafarms (TBC), has chosen a property in Deep Bay, British Columbia (B.C.) as the location for its new land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) steel-head salmon farm.

TBC has a 20-year land-least agreement for the Deep Bay property, which consists of approximately 20 acres. The company has the option to expand onto an additional 10 acres. According to the Blue Star Foods press release, the property is within a designated Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in Nanaimo, which supports commercial aquaculture without additional re-zoning. “The site sits upon the highly productive Quandra Sediments litho stratigraphic unit with an aquifer that produces high water volumes of exceptional quality suitable for land-based salmon production,” the release continued.

This venture will support TBC’s strategy to meet its expansion goals. Simultaneously, it aligns with its core values of sustainable, low carbon emission seafood production by utilizing renewable, low-cost hydro electricity. “Our strategy of replicated modular expansion allows us greater flexibility in site selection in contrast to businesses that are looking to build 10,000 metric-ton (MT) facilities or larger,” said Ben Atkinson, CEO of TBC. “This first property meets all of our criteria for the next phase of our expansion. This will be the first location for our 1,500 MT facility already in progress and will potentially support up to 4,500 MT annual production.”