The meeting room at the first international symposium EuroShrimp 2017 was bursting at its seams in Bremen, Germany, last week.

The focus of the two-day event was on European land-based shrimp farming. Many called it the "future of European aquaculture" -- and the list of attendees showed investor interest is growing. 

Berenger Colsoul, researcher at Bremerhaven-based Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), the conference's organizers, said there "clearly is viability of shrimp farming in Europe."

A number of facilities went online in the past few years, in Germany in particular, as start-ups hope to cash in on the trend for fresh, locally produced food.

The vast majority of the 600,000 metric tons of shrimp consumed in Europe every year is still frozen but "there is growing interest for fresh products," Colsoul said.

Gerrit Quantz, of Futurefish Aquaculture, one of the pioneers in the field, said this unique selling point of European farmed shrimp will be the key to success.

"We're on an island where...