“Competitive Advantage”
Many competitive advantages here.
No other shrimp company in America has this or can do this like they can ….
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All our shrimp, all our broodstock and all our PL's are produced in the United States using environmentally friendly, sustainable business practices with an extremely limited carbon footprint. Our product stands up to any pacific white shrimp produced anywhere in the world. All our products will always be produced without the use of antibiotics and hormones.
I said a few moments ago that the shrimp industry can be summarized as genetics, grow, quality and price. Perhaps, price may be minimized as to level of importance on this call, but I urge you to consider this. There is no recirculating aquaculture system in North America that can complete with us in terms of cost to produce the product. Without getting in the exact numbers, I will just way that our cost to produce headless 21-25 count shrimp (which is considered a jumbo shrimp) is SIGNIFICANTY LESS THAN $5 PER POUND, as often quoted as a gold standard for RAS systems. These are not pie in the sky numbers. These are not hopes and dreams. These are real numbers based on production of almost 1,000,000 pounds of shrimp. There is a public company that is in the shrimp business approximately 400 miles north of our facilities that is significantly more than 5.00 per pound. When you are in the food business and food science business, price to produce is important.
Now let me move on to the third point.
Why we believe our company and our genetics can be disruptive to the shrimp industry in North America and why we are receiving 7 figure orders from across the globe
If any person is attempting to assess the shrimp industry, there are essentially three ways to access shrimp product. One, by sourcing your product from natural bodies of water such as the Gulf of Mexico. Second, farm raised seafood. Third, technology-based operations such as recirculating aquaculture systems (KNOWN AS RAS) that can be placed anywhere in the world.
Our genetics are directly applicable to any farm-based shrimp operation and equally, if not more importantly, RAS systems anywhere in the world. Why are we so important to them. When you hear about RAS systems, you will hear about the fact that you can place one of these systems outside of any major city in the world, regardless of climate. In theory, yes. Practically, it's a dream without the right genetics. Allow us to give you one example. In Canada today sits an RAS based facility that cost well over 15 million to build. However, today, that system sits idle. The two main reasons is that they have a very difficult time obtaining quality PL's and their cost to produce the shrimp is more than $10 per pound. When you consider distributor mark ups and retail mark ups, it's a product that is too expensive for the market. How can we help a company like that. It should be common sense that the cost to produce shrimp in a facility in Texas will be less than the cost to produce shrimp in a facility in Iowa. Why, because these facilities operate 365 days a year and the water and the air temperature must be controlled with an optimum water temperature of 82-84 degrees. In an environment where air temperatures can get to 10 degrees in the winter, a cold-water genetic line like we own can help many of these RAS companies by saving money since our shrimp can be grown in colder temperatures, thus lowering operating costs for said producer. As far as the farm-based systems throughout the world, they want and covet US-based genetics as evidenced by the strong demand of broodstock and PLs from US sources. That is precisely why we recently received such a large order for our genetics,
Most aquaculture consultants will agree that the future of shrimp production is a combination of genetic advancements and efficient systems to produce a hormone and antibiotic free product which grows at a rate to maximize. We have all of this. The future of RAS systems and farm-based systems which is the future of aquaculture production is both a genetic challenge and a system challenge. We believe we have solved both and our 2023 production will prove it.
