Tru Shrimp Co. officials have announced that they intend to build the company’s first hatchery in Luverne, Minn., and share the campus with the planned shrimp production facility, Luverne Bay Harbor.

Michael Ziebell, tru Shrimp president and CEO, said the company initially had biosecurity concerns about a hatchery being close to a harbor.

“However, in our continuing development we have had an engineering and process breakthrough that enables the hatchery and harbor to share the same campus,” he said in a company press release.

The 60-acre Luverne campus near Interstate 90 in southwest Minnesota will house Luverne Cove Hatchery, a 42,000 square-foot facility; a free-standing shared water treatment facility; and Luverne Bay Harbor.

Luverne Cove Hatchery will provide space for spawning and house larviculture tanks where small post-larvae shrimp grow until they are mature enough to be transferred to a harbor. The hatchery will be able to raise 2 million baby shrimp annually, enough to supply two fully operational harbors.

Luverne Cove Hatchery is projected to employ 20 people, and the Harbor will employ 60.

Ralco and its affiliate tru Shrimp continue to expand in Marshall and Balaton, Minn. Ralco is consolidating executive and support services within leased office space in Marshall, which remains its headquarters. Tru Shrimp is constructing Balaton Bay Reef Training and Engineering Center, a multi-million-dollar expansion, in Balaton.

Ralco is a third-generation, family-owned multinational company that supports large segments of the livestock, poultry, aquaculture and crop industries.

Source: Ralco