Olstorpe’s initial venture, called Vegafish, was in business from 2014 until 2019. Despite the challenges that led to its closure, she argues that it was a successful proof-of-concept venture, which has provided invaluable experience.
Called Håva, the new incarnation will consist of build a bigger and better biofloc system, with a new location on the coast.
“For Håva, we’ve tried to lift on every stone from Vegafish to see what went wrong and make it in the right way instead – we’re taking all the mistakes, turning them into good knowledge and making it right this time,” she reflects.
As well as lockdown, other issues that plagued the company, according to Olstorpe, included the glacial speed of the permitting process in Sweden, their use of contractors with insufficient aquaculture experience, the purchase of substandard equipment, and a poorly balanced board.
“This time, we’ve already applied for all the permits. So everything will be ready before it starts costing money. We have also built a board containing different points of view – including legal, technical financial and business development experts – as well as my own background with microbiology and running shrimp farms,” Olstorpe points out.
Rather than repurpose the pilot farm, which Olstorpe believes was too small to uphold economical sustainability, she decided to make a fresh start in terms of location, opting for a site with access to the sea, so they are not competing with the growing number of demands on fresh water, nor will they affected should there be any future periods of drought.
However, while she’s keen to expand, Olstorpe is also wary of starting too big, so is initially targeting production of 40 tonnes of shrimp per year, with plans to increase slowly, so that they can ensure the farm evolves in line with their experience and that they avoid some of the key mistakes of other RAS operators.
“You need to understand the concept of biology meeting technology. You have a lot of engineers who think they know how to do it from an engineering point of view, but they don't know how it's supposed to work from a biology point of view and somehow you need to get those working together,” she emphasises.
As a former agronomist, Olstorpe is also well aware of the risks presented by large, densely stocked indoor livestock farms.
“If you get a disease in, you have it everywhere. We have done those mistakes on the land before with all kinds of large facilities for chicken, pigs, cows and so on. And now we're trying to do the same mistake within land-based aquaculture, like we haven't learned anything from what we did as mistakes before,” she explains.
Why biofloc?
While biofloc might not be as much of a buzzword as it was a few years ago, Olstorpe remains a consistent advocate for it, ever since discovering its potential benefits while doing her post-doctoral research.
“I get the impression a lot of people moved away from biofloc because they weren't able to master it, so moved to clearwater,” she reflects.
However, she believes that her microbiology background makes it much less daunting.
“I know microbes and I’ve learned to work with them instead of against them. So you actually just use nature to enhance your production instead of trying to stop it all the time. It happens naturally every summer, when the water warms, there’s an increased production of microbes. These sometimes become negative [as in the case of harmful algal blooms]. But with biofloc, what we can do is take the microbes that are doing what we want, so they produce a positive effect for us – absorbing the ammonia that’s released into the water as a nitrogen source, creating new microflora that can be eaten by the shrimp,” she explains.
“This means you can reduce the amount of conventional feeds that you put in, so you lower production costs. You also get a much more nicer taste into your product because microbes are a natural feed for or aquatic animals. In our biofloc you can take the shrimp directly from the tank and eat it as sashimi,” she adds.
Other advantages that Olstorpe flags up are the ability to outcompete the actinomycetes that produce geosmin – which gives shrimp a muddy taste, which can require them to be flushed prior to harvest, or sometimes even discarded completely.
Moreover, the tanks don't require a sophisticated cleaning system, reducing investment costs compared to clearwater systems.
However, she concedes, the biofloc does require a lot of supervision.
“We monitor our biofloc three times a day, but we only look at the shrimp once a week. So it's about keeping track of the water quality and making sure that you have the right microbes. If you have changes in the environment, the biofloc construction will change, so it’s best to have everything as balanced as possible. But of course you need to have some background in microbiology to understand this and you need to try to be proactive instead of reactive,” she argues.
Unfortunately for aspiring or biofloc farmers, Olstorpe is not currently prepare to give away the mix of microbes that she’s cultivating in the system
“There’s a mixture of microorganisms that we work with, but I can't really go into that one because that's under a patent discussion,” she explains.
The design of the farm itself is also currently subject to patent discussions, but – in terms of her vision – Olstorpe explains that it’s a question of striking a balance between maximising production and designing a system that allows for regular harvests without causing too much stress for the shrimp.
“Customers doesn't want shrimps every third month because they want to put it on the menu. So they would like to have shrimps every week or twice a week. So we have reconstructed our pools so that we can go in and harvest without disturbing the other animals. If you stress them too much, they go into moult and then you have to wait a while before you can harvest again,” she observes.
Looking ahead
Håva is currently looking to raise €900,000 in order to set up the farm. While it might be a comparatively meagre sum for a RAS facility, Olstorpe notes that raising funding for this type of project is challenging in Sweden, due to the lack of aquaculture knowledge among domestic investors. As a result, she is considering looking for financing from further afield, although she notes that the recent failures of large RAS projects haven’t helped.
In terms of sales, Håva is targeting the HORECA sector in order to build their brand and maintain better pricing and Olstorpe believes that the campaign directed against imported shrimp should help to lend a hand.
“In Sweden we have something called the anti-scampi campaign, which aims to stop people from eating scampi due to how they are produced – forced labour, mangrove removal, issues with chemicals and antibiotics, and eyestalk ablation of the females,” notes Olstorpe.
“And that campaign has really worked in Sweden. So there's a lot of people who don't want to eat shrimp and don't have them on the menu because they don't want to have a negative impact on the environment or social economical aspects. So now that we can produce a shrimp that doesn't do anything of those, they're really interested and – yes – they're willing to pay that little bit extra,” she adds.
Looking further ahead, Olstorpe aims to initially increase the startup’s production in Sweden, before expanding internationally through partnership agreements, adapting their biofloc technology to different countries' conditions.
