Blue Ridge Aquaculture, a Martinsville, Virginia, U.S.A.-based tilapia recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) company, is lending its expertise to a company planning a large tilapia RAS of its own in Namibia.
The project, which is slated for construction in Henties Bay, Namibia, represents a significant investment in RAS aquaculture – but early media reports of the potential cost of the project have been exaggerated, Blue Ridge Aquaculture President Martin Gardner told SeafoodSource.
“I’ve been trying to stomp those fires out for a couple of days,” Gardner said.
Media in Namibia reported the investment could be as high as NAD 6 billion (USD 319 million, EUR 297 million), but Gardner said the real cost is much lower and likely between USD 50 million and USD 80 million (EUR 46 million and EUR 74 million).
“The U.S. company is acting solely as an advisor as the Namibian company moves through the diligence stage to see if that project would be feasible or not,” Gardner said.
He said the story behind Blue Ridge Aquaculture’s involvement with the Namibian company stems from its longstanding role as a tilapia RAS farmer. Founded in 1993, Blue Ridge Aquaculture has successfully farmed tilapia for decades.
“A lot of people talk about how RAS is the future, but we’ve been doing it for 30 years,” Gardner said.
Because of that success, the company gets lots of requests from people all over the world who are interested in starting a tilapia RAS, or trying to replicate the success Blue Ridge Aquaculture has had.
“We usually wade through most of those, but sometimes some float to the top, they might have some interest or potential,” Gardner said.
The Namibian company – which Gardner didn’t name – is in the due diligence process to determine the feasability of its idea. That process involved contacting local government officials in Namibia, which required public disclosure, resulting in articles popping up in local media.
“That was unfortunate from my perspective," Gardner said. "It was way too early."
With its decades of experience, Blue Ridge Aquaculture knows all of the operating inputs a company would need to be successful, and what the numbers need to be to make it commercially viable, according to Gardner.
“We’re an advisor to the company, [and] we did let them use our name because that does give them some credit with their local government to show that there is an entity that has been doing this for 30 years, and they can go online and see our website and see that we are a viable operating company with the ability to operate a system like this – it’s not a development project,” Gardner said.
Blue Ridge Aquaculture has developed a fully integrated system from genetics to its own feed mill. It built a new hatchery and nursery system in 2021, and built its own feed mill in 2017.
“RAS farms need a very specific type of food, and because in the feed industry we’re not a very big customer, we struggled to find the quality and the development that we needed to focus on tilapia RAS feed,” Gardner said. "We have to deliver the complete meal in the pellet, and it has to be consistent throughout all of the pellets. The ability to develop new feeds, and experiment with raw materials, is important to us as the feed industry evolves and changes.”
The company’s genetics program has developed a unique strain of tilapia that is ...
