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Florida's
Hendry County boasts profitable shrimp production
By Bill Fabian
CLEWISTON — In a ribbon cutting ceremony
this week at Little Cypress Farm, one of
Hendry County’s newest and largest
employers officially dedicated its organic
shrimp production facilities to researcher
and co-founder Dr. Michael Werner.
Ocean
Boy Farms has made a home in Hendry County — with its primary hatchery,
nursery and raceways located at Little Cypress — and
its headquarters and shipping facilities
located on Airglades Road in Clewiston.
The
shrimp produced by Ocean Boy Farms are
much larger than average wild caught shrimp,
and the facility is organic certified to
produce shrimp free of preservatives, additives,
and various other non-natural substances.
According to Ocean Boy President Steven Walton,
the technology being utilized by five-year
old company is allowing for provision of “the
best tasting, safest, healthiest and most
environmentally friendly shrimp,” right
here in Hendry County.
“Our closed system technology allows
us to purely grow shrimp with improved health
and nutrition,” said Mr. Walton. “But
this is just the beginning, for we believe
our processes will lead to further breakthroughs
in such things as lower cholesterol, elevated
concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and
increased antioxidant pigmentation, to name
just a few,” he said.
The shrimp are delivered fresh to retailers
and restaurants throughout the world. Ocean
Boy shrimp are distributed to 150 restaurants
and more than 1,500 gourmet, natural and
mass market food stores nationwide. Stores
offering Ocean Boy products include Wal-Mart
and Publix, and the shrimp can also be ordered
online from Costco.com for delivery. A listing
of the shrimp on the Costco site offered
six pounds of shrimp for $54.99.
The company employs a significant number
of county residents. Currently there are
80 full-time employees; during harvest season,
which lasts from mid-July to mid-December,
the company enlists approximately 150 more
seasonal employees. According to Vice President
Jay Wilson, the facility will expand to more
than twice the current size in the coming
years. According to the facilities management
executive, the growth of the product on the
market is expected to require a significant
expansion in order to accommodate the market
for fresh organic shrimp.
Ocean
Boy is indeed one of the world’s
largest providers of organic shrimp. From
July to December of 2006, Ocean Boy Farms
will harvest in excess of two million pounds
of organic Pacific White shrimp.
The
shrimp are born and maintained in a completely
closed system that produces its
own larvae, known biologically as noplii,
in the hatchery facilities in eastern Hendry
County. After hatching, the shrimp are maintained
in a nursery facility and later moved to
large reservoirs, or raceways, to be “grown
out” for harvest. The water used by
the facility is drawn from an aquifer 1,000
feet underground, and internal treatment
systems eliminate foreign and potentially
harmful substances from the shrimp environment.
According
to the company, their methods of production
eliminate the need for hormones,
antibiotics or chemicals to ensure the health
of the growing shrimp and provide consumers
with the utmost confidence in buying the
product due to the organic certification
and “bio-secure environment.”
Additional information about the company
and questions about farm operations and shrimp
purchases can be found at www.oceanboyfarms.com or by calling (863) 983-9941.
Source:
http://www.newszap.com/articles/2006/03/29/fl/lake_okeechobee/clew05.txt
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