Land-based salmon farmer Atlantic Sapphire expects its 60,000 metric-ton processing plant in Miami to open in the third quarter of this year, in time for the company's first Atlantic salmon harvests, spokesperson Lola Navarro told IntraFish.
The building has two floors equipped with water treatment facilities, box storage and offices.
Atlantic Sapphire's Florida site is geared to produce 10,000 metric tons of salmon per year under the first phase of development.
With the first harvest scheduled for the third quarter, a large volume of that total will be produced in 2020.
Most of the salmon sold from the Miami site will be fresh, but the plant will have capacity to produce around 60 metric tons of frozen salmon or value-added products per month.
Despite the global coronavirus health crisis, the company does not expect any work on the US or Danish operations to be delayed, Navarro said.
To combat the threat of coronavirus the company said it is taking precautions in line with the recommendations from relevant health authorities.
At the start of this month Atlantic Sapphire subsidiary Atlantic Sapphire Denmark experienced a mortality event in one of its grow-out systems, losing around 227,000 fish and pushing the company's next harvest revenue back by about four months.
Battered by that event and stock market turbulence linked to coronavirus Atlantic Sapphire's shares have fallen sharply in the past month, from NOK130 (€11.14/$12.13) on Feb. 25 to NOK 80 (€6.86/$7.47) at Wednesday's close of trading in Oslo.
Check out IntraFish's analysis on the land-based companies and the sector's technology: Download a free sample report here or reach out to us at Intelligence@IntraFish.com
