Rutland man embarks on aquaculture venture

US - Rutland has landed quite a catch. Far from any ocean, in a converted apartment building on Grove Street, is the headquarters of the largest business of its kind in the United States, racking up estimated annual sales of a whopping $65 million.

Not too bad for a 39-year-old entrepreneur who hales from the seacoast of Maine.

"I grew up seeing the decimation of the whole seafood industry," said John Schramm, president of Tropical Aquaculture Products.

While realizing that the waters off New England were over-fished and being depleted, Schramm also knew the demand for seafood, especially fresh seafood, remained strong. That combination sparked an idea: that consumers needed a fish that was fresh, nutritious, free of chemicals and could be harvested in abundance.

The fish Schramm hit upon was tilapia. Indigenous to equatorial parts of the world like Central and South America, tilapia is raised on fish farms in Ecuador, Columbia and Costa Rica.

Source: Rutland Herald