Dive Brief:
- A small county in central Indiana plans to build a 60-acre aquaculture park to cash in on the fish farming boom in the Hoosier state.
- The proposed park, to be built in Delaware County about 10 miles outside Muncie, would be built next to Bell Aquaculture, an indoor fish-farm with a capacity of 2 million pounds a year.
- Delaware County would like to attract a number of aquaculture businesses to the park, including a plant to process soybeans into fish meal and a plant to process fish waste into fertilizer.
Dive Insight:
The level of development around Indiana's burgeoning aquaculture industry is worth noticing. Just days ago Bell Aquaculture opened its new feed mill in Delaware County, part of a $30 million expansion.
At first glance, the idea of a fish-farm boom in land locked Indiana sounds a bit odd. But it's real. Sales from Indiana fish farms rose from $3.5 million in 2006 to more than $15 million by 2012, according to Purdue University.
The key to understanding Indiana's interest in fish is to look at the soybean market: The Hoosier state produces a lot of soybean. The Indiana Soybean Association sees tremendous opportunity for growers in supplying beans to make fish meal. ISA has funded research into the field, and as evidenced by Delaware County, folks in Indiana are starting to believe.