Mitsubishi invests in trout 'Gigafactory'
Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation has bought into the Finnish aquaculture technology company Finnforel.
Mitsubishi, a large conglomerate with a range of industrial interests, already owns the salmon farming group Cermaq, which operates in Norway, Chile, Scotland and Canada. The amount it has invested in Finnforel has not been disclosed.
Finnforel is an innovative agritech company, focused on farming rainbow trout in what it says is a sustainable way. It has pioneered a comprehensive concept which encompasses the entire value chain—from advanced selective breeding programs to its feed, farming, processing, packaging and branding of its fish products.
Finnforel said the aim of the Mitsubishi investment is to secure “a sustainable, efficient, and environmentally friendly way to produce fish locally which will offer also significant benefits to food security”.
Finnforel’s strategy is built around its unique Gigafactory concept, which integrates environmentally friendly fish farming and processing under one roof, delivering industrial-scale production with maximum efficiency and sustainability.
The announcement explained: “Through this investment from Mitsubishi Corporation Finnforel will develop their farming of rainbow trout, which is a suitable cold-water fish species for recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).
“These systems employ advanced biofiltration to allow control of all essential environmental factors and ensure stable, safe and clean indoor conditions, while efficiently recirculating and reusing water within a closed system, ensuring zero biowaste and minimum wastewater.
“The usage of recirculating aquaculture systems facilitates year-round fish production, irrespective of environmental conditions.”
Finnforel’s Gigafactory concept also covers processing and packaging of consumer fish products onsite.
Its solution allows it to minimise the number of parties involved in the logistic chain and cut transportation time.
“This will naturally guarantee ultimate freshness of fish products delivered to consumers and lowers the cost,” the company added.
The concept also supports local food systems and reduces the carbon footprint associated with long-distance transport, Finnforel said.
Pekka A. Viljakainen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Finnforel Group, said: “Finnforel’s mission is to save the seas and feed the planet. This huge mission requires strategic partners and shareholders, with whom we can deploy our technological and operational knowledge to all continents.”
He added: “I believe that in future recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) play a crucial role in enhancing food security by enabling efficient, sustainable, and reliable production of fish where execs nutrition and waste will not end up in the seas. That is why we developed our Finnforel Gigafactory with 0% waste policy, to be implemented there where the consumers are. We are very proud to have Mitsubishi, with global distribution channels, talent and resources, to support our Finnforel’s journey.”
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