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A Norwegian fish-farming complex that plans to produce at build-out 1 billion servings of salmon a year near Homestead at what would be the world’s largest aquaculture facility is to get a $250 million loan boost via industrial revenue bonds up for approval by county commissioners this week.
The commission already approved the loan package in April 2023, but under the federal tax code that OK to issue bonds was only good for a year and the county’s industrial development authority hasn’t issued them yet, so new commission approval is required.
Atlantic Sapphire USA is in expansion mode at its 22275 SW 272nd St. operation, where it now employs 180 people and projects hiring about 100 more with an annual $15 million-plus payroll as it completes its scheduled expansion.
The parent company, which is listed on the Oslo, Norway, Euronext Oslo Stock Exchange, plans to use proceeds of the facility bonds to improve wastewater treatment and disposal for the land-based, full growth cycle salmon farming on about 20 acres.
Neither the Miami-Dade County Industrial Development Authority nor the county would have any liability for repayment of the bonds. Bond underwriter Wells Fargo expects the bonds to be issued during 2024.
The company now has a capacity of 9,500 tons of salmon a year and says the next phase of its expansion will bring capacity to 25,000 tons.
Construction of that phase has begun, and the company has design and construction contracts signed. The first growing systems are expected to be completed early next year, with full capacity of 25,000 tons flowing in 2027.
Subject to future approvals, Atlantic Sapphire plans to gradually expand production at its Homestead Bluehouse to 220,000 tons of annual capacity.
In addition to the $250 million in bonds, the company plans to provide $100 million from equity to complete the current phase of development.
Atlantic Sapphire originally raised its fish in Denmark but moved all operations to Homestead. Its largest single customer as of last year was Publix, which sold Atlantic Sapphire salmon in all its 818 Florida supermarkets.
Bluehouse fish farming differs from traditional land-based methods in that the fish are raised in one location, swimming through a series of tanks known as bluehouses that simulate the salmon’s growth cycle in nature. Atlantic Sapphire’s first bluehouses were built and refined in a small village in Denmark, and European investors still constitute a majority of its shareholders.
The company says its Homestead bluehouse contains all facilities needed for salmon’s growth, from egg hatchery to grow-out-tanks to harvest processing. The company says it completed its first commercial harvesting from the Homestead site in September 2020.
The bond issue is to be spent on a wastewater treatment plant and related construction, with the $100 million equity investment to include $60 million in machinery and equipment.
