Hawaii fish farm wants to invest $13 million to quadruple moi production - Houston Business Journal:

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, which is owned by of Lihue, Kauai, is seekiny permits to expand its state ocean lease from 28 acres to61 acres. That would enable the Kailua-based company to quadruple the volume of its cagew and increase productionfrom 1.2 million pounds to 5 million pounds annually. The expansion requires four permits, which the compant applied for late last month two from thestate , one from the state Health Departmengt and a federal permit. Hukilau, which grew out of a project in thelate 1990s, expectx the expansion to generate $20 million in annual with wholesale prices of about $4 a pound.
The company sellxs its product almost entirely within the to restaurantsand markets, said co-owner and CEO Rand y Cates. Hukilau’s current operation includes foursubmergerd cages, each measuring 3,000 cubifc meters in size. Its permiyt applications seek approval to replace the existinvg cages with eight new ones that are doubl e the current cage The larger set would still be two miles offshoree inMamala Bay. The expansion is expected to cost $13 which Cates said will be financed through federall loans andprivate funds.
He expectes the permitting process to be completed in the first quarter of next Hukilau also is building afingerling (babyu fish) hatchery in Campbell Industrial Park in The facility is expected to be completed this year and produced about 10 million fingerlings annually. If approved, Hukilau Foods’ expansiom would follow the downsizing of Kona BlueWater Hawaii’s only other open-ocean fish farm. The Kona farm announced earlietr this year that it will reduc e annual production of its farmed Hawaiianb yellowtail from 1 million poundxto 600,000 pounds. Hukilau Foods grew out of a UH aquaculturs research projectthat Cates, a former commercial took over in 1999.
He formed in 2000 to convertf thepilot open-ocean farm into a In 2007, Grove Farm Co. acquiref Cates’ company and renamed it Grove Farm Fish andPoi LLC, whichj does business as Hukilauy Foods.