Russia-based investment fund Russian Friends Capital (RFC) has contracted Israeli recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) equipment supplier AquaMaof Aquaculture Technologies to build a land-based salmon farm in Kazakhstan.

The estimated $40 million (€33.3 million) project is expected to have an initial capacity of 2,500 metric tons of salmon, ramping up to 3,500 in the first phase, with hopes to then double the capacity in the second phase.

The goal is to start construction towards the end of 2021.

“If everything goes as planned, we will finish the construction by mid-2022, and 2024 is the year we want to start producing the salmon,” Dmitry Perman, partner at RFC, told IntraFish.