Futuna Blue to produce turbot and bluefin tuna

After overcoming a financial crisis, aquaculture company Futuna Blue will produce turbot in 2010 and bluefin tuna in 2011 in the Port of Santa Maria, Cadiz.

The company plans to use broodstock captured in trap nets and transferred to port tanks for the production of northern bluefin tuna. The company will also build a large bluefin tuna production complex in El Puerto. The 30,000 square metres large complex will be located in the port and will breed and export 500,000 tuna per year.

The major challenge of this project is to have the production be stable and continuous, reach an industrial dimension and have the commercialisation of fry for the fattening farms of the Mediterranean guaranteed, said Stephen Chetcuti, general director of Futuna Blue.

An investment of around EUR11 million (US$15.7 million) is estimated for the El Puerto plant, with most of the capital coming from the private sector.

Meanwhile, Futuna Blue seeks to collaborate with the trap net sector and the Spanish Oceanography Institute of Murcia, which also conducts research in this area.

Chetcuti said this cooperation is very important, as it is an investment that has a lot of profitability but which also entails risks.