Fish farmer offers 'investment for all' at planned Texas RAS facility

A landbased fish farmer planning to develop a 5,000-tonne marine fish facility in the US state of Texas will partly finance the project through crowdfunding.

Pure Blue Fish currently operates a 125-tonne recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm in Binyamina, Israel, and has plans for larger RAS facilities in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and Texarkana, eastern Texas.

Much of the funding for the US projects is expected to come from institutional and wealthy private investors, but the company also plans to use a crowdfunding model in Texas to meet demand from smaller investors, business development executive Ido Mann told LandbasedAQ.com.

“To be clear, Pure Blue Fish is actively securing funds from institutional and private investors for both the South Carolina and Texas projects. We have already secured commitments for a portion of the capital required and are moving forward with confidence,” said Mann.

'Democratising investment'

He added that Pure Blue Fish has chosen to also use crowdfunding for the Texas project “to democratise access” following recent media exposure, which included a segment on i24, an Israel-headquartered TV channel that broadcasts in the United States and other countries.

“We received numerous inquiries from non-accredited individuals who wanted to support our mission but couldn’t write the large cheques required for a typical round,” Mann explained.

“Since our model is based on local production for local communities, we felt it was vital to open a channel for the community to have a stake in our journey. However, given the cap on regulation crowdfunding (approximately US $5 million), this campaign serves primarily as a vehicle for community engagement rather than the primary financing tool for a 5,000-tonne facility.”

Pure Blue Fish operates a zero discharge RAS that uses the local tap water supply  and only requires top-ups to compensate for evaporation. It focuses on marine fish, such as yellowtail kingfish and red drum, for commercial and conservation reasons.

“We know that in the market there are solutions for diadromous fish and freshwater fish that are pretty established,” said Mann. “But when you're talking about marine fish, 95% of them are still being fished out of the sea. So, we believe the biggest impact you can have is by growing marine fish.”

The US market for marine finfish is worth upwards of $15 billion per year, he pointed out.

Starting small

Although Pure Blue Fish’s US farms may reach an individual capacity of 5,000 tonnes when they are complete, they won’t start that way. Instead, Pure Blue Fish will build one or two 300-tonne modules and add further modules once it has begun producing fish and selling them profitably. It envisages eight such farms in the US in the first phase, each with up to 16 modules, but expects the farms to take a few years to reach full size.

“This is by choice, not necessity,” explained Mann. “We believe it takes time to build the team, manpower, and partnerships needed for a full-scale farm, and the growth should accommodate the local market conditions.”

Because each module is self-contained, Pure Blue Fish will be able to grow more than one species of fish at a site. This will enable the company to meet market demand, rather than trying to create one or establish a complicated and expensive distribution network, said Mann.

Pure Blue Fish’s zero discharge and use of standard tap water means its farms can be built anywhere. Texarcana, for example, is on the border between Texas and Arkansas and is more than 300 miles from the sea. Location of farms will be decided partly by proximity to cities – the company aims to be within a six-hour drive of 80% of the population - and also by incentives offered by local governments seeking job creators.

“We're agriculture and sustainable and we can be anywhere. This is a combination that local governments really love. We have the type of jobs they're looking for, which are middle tier and technical jobs for people who are sometimes uneducated but who we can train.”

'Strong interest' in capital raise

Mann said Pure Blue Fish is advancing its capital raise for the Orangeburg facility and has seen strong interest.

“While we have secured key commitments, the round remains open to qualified investors as we work towards breaking ground in 2026,” he said.

When the Texarkana farm is built, the company intends to launch with either yellowtail kingfish (Serioloa lalandi) or red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus).

“The final decision will be based on local market demand and logistical optimisation as we get closer to operation. As the farm scales, we plan to introduce additional species,” concluded Mann.