Aquaculture for all

Umami Acquire Baja Aqua Farms

Post-harvest

US - Baja Aqua Farms, soon to be a full subsidiary of Umami Sustainable Seafood, has agreed to sell $20 million of bluefin tuna to Japanese buyers.

Delivery will commence this month and will be completed before the end of January 2011.

Umami Sustainable Seafood has recently announced that it acquire all remaining interests (67 per cent) in Baja Aqua Farms.

In announcing the contract signings, Oli Steindorsson, CEO of the Company stated: "We are pleased to see that our decision to invest in Baja is already being validated by these sales agreements, which have been negotiated at price levels which reflect the high level of demand among Japanese clients for the type of premium quality bluefin produced by Baja, and are at the upper end of our forecast range."

Mr Steindorsson said: "Harvesting of the fish under contract has already commenced and will be completed by the end of January. The cash proceeds from the sales will be used both to supplement Baja's working capital as well as build additional capacity in Baja to ensure consolidation of its position as the preeminent bluefin operation in the Americas."

Mr Steindorsson added: "We are also in process of finalizing our sales program for our 100 per cent owned subsidiary Kali Tuna, which we expect to be done within a few months."

Mr Steindorsson concluded: "Baja and Kali Tuna currently have combined inventory of over 5,500 metric tons of bluefin. Although we do not expect them to sell but part of this inventory this year, if they did so, it would represent a total sales value of approximately $120 million at current prices. This represents an excellent base to deliver good returns on our investment as we move further into our first year as a public company."

Create an account now to keep reading

It'll only take a second and we'll take you right back to what you were reading. The best part? It's free.

Already have an account? Sign in here