Finger Lakes Fish currently operates from a 43,000-square-foot facility in Auburn, but this is the first of a dozen the company plans to open across the US.
Founded by Ed Heslop, the company raises coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and sells them to high-end restaurants and grocers under the LocalCoho brand name.
According to The Citizen, there are currently 100,000 coho inside the facilty, which at capacity will have nine raceways, capable of producing 2,000 fish a week – the equivalent of 450 tons (408 tonnes) a year.
Gibson told The Citizen that the facility should be finished within six months and employ at least 10 people.
Finger Lakes Fish is the first recirculating system coho salmon farm in the world to operate under Best Aquaculture Practices certification, which is based on food safety, animal welfare and environmental sustainability.
The Auburn facility is a proof of concept for the others the business plans to build, Gibson said. A facility supplies fish within a 300-mile radius, so the others will be placed near population centres, not necessarily in them.
Though Finger Lakes Fish will expand its production, it does not plan to expand its product beyond LocalCoho, which is served as a raw delicacy at the restaurants Finger Lakes Fish supplies.
Further information
Published with kind permission of The Citizen. To access the original article click here.
