Pure Salmon is building a new 10,000 tonnes per annum recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility at Boulogne-Sur-Mer in northern France.
The €175m investment, which will create the largest salmon RAS facility in the EU, was announced at the Choose France Summit hosted by president Emmanuel Macron at the Château of Versailles.
The new RAS facility will be fully integrated from hatchery and grow-out to processing and smoking. Construction of the site is expected to commence in Q4 2020, with the first harvest of market-size salmon expected in 2023.
Boulogne-Sur-Mer is the leading fish processing and distribution centre in Europe with extensive transport links to the rest of France and neighbouring countries, ensuring a potential market of 80 million consumers within a 300km radius.
Stephane Farouze, board director of Pure Salmon, said, “We have chosen France over other European countries because of its long reputation for producing exceptionally high-quality food, the large salmon consumer base and also for the support and assistance we have received from all levels of government in France.”
Pure Salmon started producing its first salmon at its RAS facility in Poland in 2018, which recently received Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification. Along with this and the new French facility, the company has also announced investment in other locations including Japan, America and China to achieve Pure Salmon’s goal of producing 260,000 tonnes of salmon per year.
