Highlights in report from Blue Star Foods reflect expansion in RAS operations

Blue Star Foods, a seafood company that prides itself on its sustainability with a focus on recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), has released a report on its first quarter of 2022 ending 31 March, 2022.

Highlights mentioned in the report included the company's acquisition of Gault, a RAS company with technology focused on harvesting Atlantic Blue Crab during off-season and its operations in soft-shell crab division in South Carolina.

"We made tremendous progress in the first quarter of 2022," says John Keeler, Chairman and CEO Blue Star. "Returning to pre-Covid 19 pandemic levels and further expansion in RSA with our Gault Seafood asset acquisition."

Blue Star Foods acquired certain assets of Gault Seafood in December of last year, which provided the company with access to Gault's technology designed for harvesting Atlantic Blue Carb during its off-season. The technology in question enables modification of the molting cycle of Atlantic Blue Crab, which means it can be harvested outside of the March to September window and enables the company to meet consumer demands in the North American market.

Atlantic Blue Crab

"We are executing on plan by shifting toward indoor fish farming utilizing new innovative technologies coupled with our sustainable resource management model," Keeler adds. "We believe macro seafood trends are in our favor with seafood demand forecasted to greatly outweigh supply over the next few decades and a movement for environmental safety to combat overfishing, ocean pollution and microplastics. Our land-based RAS model and diversification of marine protein species is a major differentiator for us."

Blue Star Foods' operations in its soft-shell crab RAS division began in February of this year, following on from its acquisition of Gault. Operations are focused on using newly acquired technology to harvest the Atlantic Blue Crab during off-season, which Frank Lubkin, President of Coastal Pride, said had a "pretty narrow harvest window."

"What we are aiming to do is apply the unique technology acquired from Gault and start scaling up production in a pretty significant way in Beaufort, South Carolina," he explains.

The company hopes to be delivering off-season soft-shell crab product to consumers beginning of August this year, while they search for a property site to upscale production.

It concluded in the report that it had made a profit of US$1.8 million dollars, up from US$1.2 million on 31 December, 2021.

For more information on Blue Star Foods visit their website, HERE.