“Shrimp farming in most parts of the world is a completely low-tech industry. It is today where the chicken industry was in the 1960s.”
White tiger shrimp have a problem: they’re so tasty that people can’t get enough of them. Demand for shrimp is growing at a rate of 8% a year as the world’s growing population seeks the delicious high-protein, low-fat crustaceans for their barbecues, curries, pasta, stir fries and keto diets.
But satisfying this demand comes at a huge environmental and social cost. White-legged shrimp are on Greenpeace International’s seafood red list, because of their link to mangrove destruction, overfishing in the wild, pollution, and significant human-rights abuses in some countries.
Munich-based Oceanloop aims to change that. “Our fully automated, indoor, shrimp-farming technology, is uninterrupted by climate, so we can farm day and night, in the winter and in the summer, almost anywhere in the world,” says Fabian Riedel, the company's chief executive.
The aquaculture technology company has developed a new kind of shrimp farm that will allow the popular seafood to be raised and processed on land in cooler climates, such as that of Europe, with minimal environmental impact and optimal conditions for the animals.
Urban mangroves
Native to the Eastern Pacific Ocean, white tiger shrimp are the most farmed seafood species in the world. About 5 million tonnes a year are processed globally, mainly in Asia and Latin America, in multinational supply chains crossing countries like India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. As a result, European consumers have little idea where their imported shrimp comes from or the conditions in which they were raised and processed.
Oceanloop’s shrimp farms are a high-tech answer to this problem. Whereas most shrimp are farmed in outdoor circular ponds, Oceanloop’s shrimp are raised in a long, indoor, climate-controlled tank, divided by moving walls that separate the shrimp according to age. The sections use stacked horizontal layers, so that the animals can rest as they would in their natural habitat. The water is filtered and recirculated, in a closed-loop process partly powered by renewable energy, so that no antibiotics or other pharmaceutical products are needed.
The technology also places animal welfare at its heart.
“We noticed a few years ago that when shrimp reach a certain size, they tend to spend a lot of time sitting at the bottom of the tank,” says Riedel. “This is something they do in the wild, but they can’t in traditional shrimp farms because of the lack of space. Our ‘urban mangroves’ are like underwater skyscrapers, giving the shrimp much more space to relax. And with that we’ve gained a lot of efficiency in our production system because the shrimp love it.”
The company also monitors the health and behaviour of the shrimp in real time, using cameras and artificial intelligence to spot signs of stress or ill health.
- Read about other aquaculture companies supported by the EIB.
Shrimp are also victims of climate change
Smart, sustainable aquaculture production methods are increasingly important for shrimp and other seafood species, because of climate change.
Production in India was hit this year by heat waves as higher temperatures reduced the level of oxygen in outdoor ponds.
Intense floods linked to climate change have also damaged farms in Vietnam, the Mekong Delta and other parts of the world.
To reduce their impact on the climate and environment, Oceanloop’s farms are designed with circular economy principles in mind. Shrimp shells and heads, often discarded during processing, are used to make soup, while waste from the farms, including the exoskeletons shed by the shrimp as they grow, are converted into fertiliser and biogas.
Michelin-star quality
Oceanloop shrimps are already sold in restaurants and online through HONEST CATCH, the company’s B2C online and B2B sales platform, which sells a variety of sustainable seafood. The high-quality produce has won over many fans, including Michelin-starred celebrity TV chef Alexander Herrmann and Michelin-starred chef Jason Grom, who serves the company’s seafood in his restaurant, Die Burg, in Donaueschingen, Germany.
Now, the company is looking to increase production, first by expanding its pilot project in Kiel, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, and then opening a new, much larger farm on Spain's Gran Canaria, that will be powered by wind and solar power.
To fund the company’s ambitious plans, the European Investment Bank has provided €35 million in venture debt, a long-term loan designed to help early stage and growing companies expand without diluting the ownership of existing shareholders.
The financing is backed by a guarantee from InvestEU, the European Union’s flagship scheme to stimulate investment in strategic sectors.
- What is venture debt? Read about it here.
Scaling up production is crucial for the company to bring down costs and compete with cheaper imports. With the European Investment Bank's financing, production at Oceanloop’s Kiel plant will expand from 5 tonnes a year to 60 tonnes, and the new facility planned in the Canary Islands will eventually have an annual capacity of 2 000 tonnes per year.
“Oceanloop’s innovative technology makes perfect sense and addresses all the problems associated with shrimp farming today,” says Ilaria Rubbini European Investment Bank loan officer. “To compete with cheaper imports, however, they need to scale up. Venture debt, or equity, is really the only solution for such a company.”
“Their shrimp is also really good,” she adds. “I love fish, but I’m not such a big shrimp fan. But we tried it three or four different ways and it was really outstanding.
