Spanish aquaculture group Futuna Blue will expand its
facilities this year with the construction of a land-based farming site in the
south of Spain, shifting from juvenile- only production to farming fully grown
fish for commercial distribution from 2019. The facility, located in Cádiz, was originally designed
by Bent Urup and constructed by AKVA group Denmark. The original plan was to
farm Bluefin tuna but the production of bluefin was not profitable at all, it's
was too expensive, and the price of the fish did not justify the costs. So, a
shift to farm juveniles of several marine species was taken and now greater
amberjack {Seriola dumerili) is in
focus. The company claims to be the
only farmer of this fish in the world as well as to have the objective to
explore new species every year, and not compete with traditional aquaculture. In 2018, the company plans to start the construction giving
a capacity of 150 metric tons, and intends to build another three tanks in the
medium term for greater amberjack farming, with the intention to farm 600
metric tons a year of the fish for commercial distribution. Production of copepods is the secret of the juvenile
growing system. At Fortuna Blue the fish larvae is fed with copepods as in the natural
environments. With the production of copepods, the company has the advantage to
reduce its reliability on Artemia for the larval feeding stage, reducing costs
significantly. Copepod production is expensive, but guarantees larvae survival
and reduces the risk of deformity in early stages. As part of the first phase of the expansion, which is
expected to finalize by year end. Futuna Blue will also add four new tanks for
broodstock. another two tanks for experimental broodstock species and two tanks
for sea bream farming. It currently has capacity to produce 200,000 juveniles
of greater amberjack a year, and expects to increase capacity to one million by
next year. The company not only sells juveniles of around 9 grams
- depending on the species, the season and the clients' requests - but also
sells the technology, builds the tanks, and provides training and necessary
knowledge for the full production of the species customers want to farm. Following the construction of the land-based tank, the
plan is to sell the fish commercially as well as to replicate the model in
different areas for third parties. The idea the company has is to farm seawater species
that can be consumed and commercialized in different formats, like salmon. Amberjack is sold at around €15 per kilo, and production
cost is between €6 and €7. Greater amberjack grows to 2 kilograms a year at sea.
but RAS allows you to be fully independent from environmental factors and the
fish may reach 4-5 kilo in a year. 
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