Butterfly lands on striped bass producer Pacifico
Pacifico Aquaculture, which says it is the world's first and only producer of ocean-raised striped bass, has been bought by US private equity firm Butterfly for an undisclosed sum.
Pacifico operates a bass farm covering 179 hectares near the shores of Isla de Todos Santos, an island eight miles west of Ensenada, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
The farm, which was certified with a four-star Best Aquaculture Practices rating from the Global Aquaculture Alliance in 2017, produces between 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes of fish annually.
“This is an exciting new chapter for Pacifico and we look forward to our partnership with the Butterfly team,” Pacifico joint chief executives Omar Alfi and Daniel Farag said in a press release.
“Butterfly understands our business well and shares our vision for the future, and we are excited to have a partner with deep industry expertise in the food sector.”
Pacifico says it stocks its cages at low densities and sources its feed for sustainability. "We at Pacifico have consciously aligned with feed producers who have like minded sustainability strategies and who work closely with environmental groups and governments to minimise the impact of feed production on the environment. Our primary feed producers utilise trimmings from existing fisheries to minimise the use of wild fishmeal in the feed they produce, while maintaining the highest quality product.
"Through these and other efforts, we have consistently been able to achieve a fish-in-fish-out ratio of less than one."
