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Mexico-based Pacifico Aquaculture to expand with new funding

Mexico’s Pacifico Aquaculture has received funding from Butterfly Equity, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, Equilibrium Capital and a U.S. public pension fund. This new capital will finance the company’s new nursery facility in Baja California, Mexico.

Pacifico is a producer of ocean-raised striped bass and this funding will help to upscale its production capacity to meet the market for sustainably raised striped bass.

Per-Roar Gjerde, chief executive officer of Pacifico, said the company is happy about the new partnership and the continued support as Pacifico grows.

“This investment will allow us to build a state-of-the-art nursery facility and unlock 20,000 metric tons of annual production capacity to meet the world’s growing demand for healthy, nutritious seafood,” Gjerde said.

Dustin Beck, co-founder and co-CEO of Butterfly agreed. “This is a watershed moment for growing sustainable aquaculture in North America… Butterfly has been a long-term, committed partner to Pacifico since 2017.”

Equilibrium, environment agriculture investors will provide project financing for the entire nursery project and Billund Aquaculture will supply the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) technology for the nursery.

According to Nick Houshower, managing director and head of Equilibrium’s Controlled Environment Foods team, “Next-generation aquaculture is part of the ‘infrastructuring of agriculture,’ where investments in controlled environment facilities to improve efficiencies and resiliency are becoming essential.”