November 1, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

In business since 2010, Pacifico Aquaculture’s proprietary technology has led the company to become the only commercial producer of ocean-raised striped bass in the world. 

Aquaculture is integral to a healthy global food system, offering a sustainable and efficient means of providing essential nutrients while reducing the pressure on wild fisheries and land-based livestock production. It plays a vital role in addressing food security and nutrition challenges in a world facing population growth and environmental change.

Within this critical industry, Pacifico is not only a pioneer in production, but has also set itself apart for being the first marine fish farm in Mexico to obtain a four-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification – the highest level of recognition administered by the BAP program – and certification as a Good Alternative by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

Due to its favorable flavor, texture, and appearance, striped bass has become the most wild-caught fish in America, but overexploitation, seasonality, and strict quotas have severely limited the fish’s availability. 

Known on the market as Pacifico True Striped Bass®, Pacifico offers its sustainably raised striped bass on a year-round basis as a highly versatile product to North America’s leading chefs, restaurants, and retailers, positioning itself for significant market expansion in the $290 billion global aquaculture industry. 

Facilitating this goal, Pacifico announced it has received project financing from Equilibrium Capital in addition to a significant equity investment from a consortium of investors led by Butterfly Equity and a leading U.S. public pension fund. 

The company explained that this backing will be used to fully finance its nursery facility in Baja California and to provide a substantial runway to scale its production capacity in order to meet robust market demand. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Equilibrium and to receive continued support from Butterfly as Pacifico reaches an exciting inflection point in its growth,” said Per-Roar Gjerde, CEO, Pacifico. “This investment will allow us to build a state-of-the-art nursery facility and unlock 20,000 metric tons of annual production capacity to meet the world’s growing demand for healthy, nutritious seafood.”

Opening the door for growth and expansion in a highly-valued niche within the aquaculture industry is an enviable situation to be in. Much like the case for controlled environment agriculture, population growth, changing consumption patterns, and shifting relationship between consumers and their diet are creating a landscape wherein next-generation food production models, such as modern aquaculture production, are gaining traction. Valued at $289.6 billion in 2022, the global aquaculture market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5 percent to reach $421.2 billion by 2030, according to Vantage Market Research, presenting a positive outlook for Equilibrium Capital as it expands into what it calls a new segment of the CEA sector. 

“Next-generation aquaculture is part of the ‘infrastructuring of agriculture,’ where investments in controlled environment facilities to improve efficiencies and resiliency are becoming essential,” said Nick Houshower, managing director and head of Equilibrium’s Controlled Environment Foods team. 

“These are the same trends that have informed Equilibrium’s Controlled Environment Foods strategy focused on climate-resilient infrastructure, and Equilibrium is excited to be expanding into a new segment of the CEA sector with Butterfly, a food investing leader,” continued Houshower. “Pacifico is a trailblazer in sustainable aquaculture, and we look forward to this nursery project allowing them to take their production capabilities to new heights.”

And whereas Equilibrium is a new investor in Pacifico, Butterfly has been a long-term partner of the company dating back to 2017. 

“This is a watershed moment for growing sustainable aquaculture in North America,” said Dustin Beck, co-founder and co-CEO,  Butterfly. “Butterfly has been a long-term, committed partner to Pacifico since 2017. We have witnessed Pacifico’s tremendous growth since our investment, and firmly believe we’re still in the early innings of its growth trajectory. We cannot be more excited to partner with Equilibrium who shares our vision to build Pacifico into a world-class aquaculture platform under Per-Roar’s strong leadership.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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