Blue Star Foods has recorded a 79% year-on-year increase in revenue to $8.3 million. However, that wasn’t enough to prevent the company from reporting an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.3 million.
“We continued our positive momentum during the second quarter and we believe remain on track to nearly double revenue for all of 2022, as compared to the $10.0 million revenue we generated in all of 2021,” Blue Star CEO John Keeler stated.
“We launched our soft-shell crab RAS operations in March 2022, as we utilize technology to enhance productivity and sustainability. We are very pleased with the early results and $0.5 million revenue contribution in the second quarter, as we look for its pending expansion to be a major differentiator for us and contributor to profitability. Initial response from our seafood distributors and customers has been favorable in validating our sustainable indoor fish farming technology and processes,” Keeler explained.
“As we look to the second half of 2022, we believe we remain on track to restore our legacy business to pre-pandemic levels of approximately $20 million of annual revenue. Our team is focused on advancing into the construction phase of our transformational soft-shell crab RAS facility in Jasper County, South Carolina. We believe that the Company is poised to successfully deliver on its mission statement of providing safe, secure and sustainable local source farm-raised seafood species. We look forward to providing updates on our progress,” Keeler outlined.
Read more: Land-based steelhead salmon farmer aiming for 21,000 tonnes a year by 2028
The company recently announced that it is aiming to produce 21,000 tonnes of steelhead salmon by 2028, having acquired a family-owned land-based salmon farm in British Columbia. “We believe that RAS is the future of our industry and win-win for all the stakeholders involved in a seafood supply chain that is sustainable over the long-term,” Keeler said at the time.
Blue Star confirmed in June that it had acquired Taste of BC Aquafarms, which currently produces 100 tonnes of steelhead salmon a year. “One of the things you are going to be hearing from us in the future is that Taste of BC is producing more RAS steel-head salmon that is being consumed in the marketplace than many of our publicly traded peers. We believe that when properly resourced, we are more likely to hit our production goals than other folks,” Keeler added.
