A $30M eel farm may be coming to Michigan
Commercial facility would be first in state
A Florida-based company wants to construct a $30 million eel farm in St. Johns, Michigan, and it’s eyeing land in the city’s industrial park for the project.
The start-up firm behind the proposal, Aqua Vida Aquaculture, has been working to establish a commercial eel farm in the United States for more than four years.
The facility, if established, would be the first commercial eel farm that raises eels for food in the state and possibly the country, said Dr. Stephen Hussey, aquaculture and poultry program manager for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Company founder and Managing Partner Kit Munday said the facility would produce farm-raised, African longfin eel and American eel for customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, using a “recirculating aquaculture system.”
The facility could occupy as much as 2 acres, he said, and create an estimated 25 jobs of varying skill levels.
Eel are a source of “high quality protein” in Asia and Europe, Munday said. It is often eaten grilled, stewed or roasted.
To move forward, the company will also have to meet extensive state requirements for a aquaculture research permit, Hussey said.
Growing eels
Aqua Vida Aquaculture’s proposed eel farm would be a “self-contained facility,” where the water would be recirculated and reused, Munday said last week. The eels raised there would have no contact with lakes or rivers, he said.
“I think Michigan and the Midwest (have) a huge potential for land-based agriculture,” Munday said.
State officials first heard from Munday in 2016, Hussey said.
“We’re not aware of anyone in the U.S. that’s growing eels,” he added.
Staff with the Michigan Quality of Life Team, which includes staff from the state’s departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Environmental Quality, spent two years conducting a “risk analysis” of the proposal, Hussey said.
It included an assessment of the potential for eels at the facility to spread disease or harm the environment, he said.
Last June. officials finalized a fourpage document outlining procedures the company would have to follow in establishing and operating an eel farm in Michigan.
Hussey said the requirements — which address how eels should be screened and quarantined when they are brought in to the state, as well as security and construction of the facility — are in place to guard against potential risks.
Requirements would also include a site visit by state agencies after the facility is constructed, “but prior to the arrival of eels, verifying compliance with previously agreed requirements/permits,” and annual state inspections.
“The QOL team has consulted with colleagues at both the state and federal level and has conducted a risk analysis and has high confidence that this project will be successful, while also protecting Michigan’s environmental resources,” state officials wrote in a June 6 letter to Munday.
To date, the state has not received any formal applications for licensing or permits from Aqua Vida Aquaculture, Hussey said.
The city hasn’t received a formal site plan from the company either, St. Johns’ Deputy City Manager and Community Development Director Dave Kudwa said.
“It’s been a project we’ve been talking to a representative about for 18 months to two years,” Kudwa said.
Munday said his company hasn’t purchased any land in the city’s industrial park yet, but he isn’t actively looking at any other locations.
Kudwa said there are 16 acres of available land in the city’s 205-acre industrial park.
An estimated 60 to 70 acres in the park will become part of a $555 million dairy processing operation belonging to Glanbia Nutritionals and Proliant Dairy Ingredients.