Global Seafood Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GSFT) reported yesterday that the survival rates of freshwater prawns from its commercial grow-out ponds in Mississippi have exceeded the company’s initial expectations. Reportedly, survival rates of 80% to 90%, which the company experienced, exceeded the business plan projections, which were set last year.
GSFT is promoting the production of freshwater prawns through joint ventures with farmers and investors. GSFT supplies the nursed seed-stock and shares its technology for feed and grow-out regimes with its joint venture partners. The company profits not only from the pond seeding, but shares in profits derived from the harvest and sale of the prawns. The grow-out period is less than four months. “We were confident that our business model would prove itself,” reported Clay Gutierrez, GSFT Vice President, “but the survival rates actually achieved in the field definitely support the profit potential.” GSFT expects to increase its acreage tenfold in 2001.
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Research for the development of freshwater prawns in the United States has been conducted at Mississippi State University for over a decade, and development of the species on a commercial scale has taken hold following GSFT’s involvement beginning in 1998. Since then, GSFT’s aquaculture division has been hatching freshwater shrimp larvae and nursing juveniles at its facility in Ocean Springs, MS and has brought the technology forward to demonstrated commercial success. The ponds in production during 2000 had been seeded beginning in April, and harvests occurred throughout the growing season, which ended in October for that region.
Production of freshwater prawns is seen as an attractive alternative to catfish production, which is now the largest agricultural crop in Mississippi. Domestic catfish production rose 33% in four years to 596 million pounds in 1999. Meanwhile, the September 2000 issue of Seafood Business reported that shrimp consumption reached an all-time high of three pounds per person, with the growth supplied primarily by farmed imports. In 1999 the U.S. imported 731 million pounds, up 5% from 1998.
GSFT’s Custom Pack subsidiary, which processes and packages shrimp for many of the nation’s largest seafood chains and grocery outlets, processed over 10 million pounds of shrimp in its latest fiscal year ending March 31, 2000. This included over 1 million pounds of freshwater prawns imported from the Far East.
GSFT is the largest IQF (individual quick freeze) processor of shrimp in the U.S. The company also markets bait products to the recreational fishing industry through its Killer Bee Bait subsidiary. Expansion of the company’s aquaculture activities is viewed as a natural integration with its existing production capacities. Additional information about GSFT may be viewed at the company’s website: www.globalsea.com .
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By GlobalDataThis press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations of beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described.
