Courtesy / Maine & Co
Ohad Maiman, CEO of Kingfish Zeeland (right), speaks with Jonesport resident David Look after last night’s meeting.
Updated: November 21, 2019
Community support 'critical' for Dutch company’s planned Jonesport aquafarm
Courtesy / Kingfish Zeeland
The Dutch company Kingfish Zeeland is considering an expansion to Jonesport, but considers community support a critical factor in its final decision. Seen here is a view of the company’s land-based recirculation facility in the Netherlands, where the company raises Dutch yellowtail fish.
Dutch aquaculture company Kingfish Zeeland is considering Jonesport, a lobstering stronghold on the Downeast coast, as the site of a land-based recirculation facility for producing yellowtail kingfish, a marine species used in sushi, sashimi and other dishes.
“Jonesport is indeed our preferred site, but community support is a critical factor for our final choice,” Kingfish Zeeland CEO Ohad Maiman told Mainebiz by email Wednesday.
Pending local support, the company will formally decide and announce its site selection, he added.
Kingfish Zeeland was founded four years ago and now plans to expand into the United States.
Maiman and other company representatives presented its proposed location to a town hall-style meeting Wednesday night at Jonesport’s Peabody Memorial Library. About 50 residents attended.
“It felt like as warm of a welcome as we could have hoped for,” Maiman told Mainebiz. “ It was very important for us to make sure there’s support in town.”
Maiman said the estimated investment into a Jonesport plan would be at a minimum $100 million Euros, or about $110 million.
“We’re now in the early days of engineering so the final number is not there yet,” he added.
Maiman said that, if the permitting process goes smoothly, construction of the plant could start in 2021.
“That’s the target,” he said. “We’re working hard to get together the required paperwork.”
In the plant’s first phase, target production would be 6,000 metric tons per year. It would create 70 full-time positions.
“The site will enable us to go further in phase 2, but it’s too soon to tell,” he said.
Production at the plant in Holland is 600 metric tons per year and has 37 employees. The company is also initiating an expansion of the Dutch plant.
Maiman said the company began looking into expansion in the U.S. as a competitive advantage. One of the strengths of land-based aquaculture, he said, is the ability to grow product close to market. Currently, yellowtail kingfish is primarily produced in Japan. About a year and a half ago, the company began allocating 10% to 20% of its production to the U.S. in order to gauge the market.
“That’s been a strategic decision to gauge the market and start laying the groundwork for capacity in the U.S.,” he said. Buyers include restaurant suppliers on the East Coast. The company is in discussions with a major U.S. retailer, he said.
“We’re very happy with response to the product,” he said. “So that was a confirmation that the U.S. market is interested in our product. The prompted us to start looking for a site in the U.S.”
The search process focused on Maine early on, because of Maine’s advantages for land-based aquaculture, he said. That included access to clean seawater and an existing fishery-focused infrastructure.
About a year ago, the company started looking at potential sites along the Maine coast, starting with a survey of 22 potential sites. A few months ago, that narrowed to two sites. Maiman declined to say what the second site was.
The company has commissioned preliminary environmental surveys of the Jonesport site.
Now that the company has heard directly from Jonesport residents, it’s definitely decided on Jonesport, he said.
“That was the last piece of the puzzle,” he said. “We’re now moving full steam ahead.”
The company had preliminary meetings a few months ago with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Marine Resources.
“We now have quite some engineering and design work to prepare the information for the permit applications,” he added.
Maiman and other top management are commuting between the Netherlands and the U.S.
“But we now have three full-time employees who live in Maine, “ he said.
Global production of yellowtail kingfish, he said, is about 160,0000 metric tons. About 150,000 metric tons is produced yearly in Japan; 3,000 to 4,000 mt are produced in Australia and there are a handful of small operations elsewhere, he said.
“We will end up being quite large for a single operation,” he said. “Our goal is to be able to offer locally produced fresh product at competitive prices.”
“It’s a pretty significant for this to show up in Jonesport,” Selectman Dwight Alley told Mainebiz.
The proposed site, a 90-acre lot that’s been for sale for several years, is roughly 5 miles from the center of town. Part of the site consists of blueberry fields, and previously was the location of a net and twine shop. A cottage sits by the water.
At last night’s meeting, an informal show of hands revealed the majority of attendees favored Kingfish Zeeland’s proposal, Alley said.
The company first approached the board of selectmen about three months ago. The board has held several meetings with the company since then, Alley said.
Located in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, the company taps the estuary water of the Oosterschelde to deliver what it describes on its website as a “healthy premium delicacy.” Dutch yellowtail is “a high-grade sashimi, grilled, or smoked classic, and an excellent sustainable alternative recommended as a ‘Green Choice’ by the Good Fish Foundation,” the website says.
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