BLUU Seafood, a European food biotech company in the production of cultivated fish, officially opened the doors to its first pilot plant in Europe. By relocating from Lübeck to Hamburg-Altona, the startup company says it has left laboratory scale behind and exchanged it for 2,000 square meters of customized research, production and office space to develop and produce fish products. The new fermenters, which currently have a capacity of 65 liters with the potential to expand to 2,000 liters, will enable BLUU Seafood to cultivate muscle, fat and connective tissue cells from Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout in much larger quantities than before.

With the new plant and the associated scale-up, BLUU Seafood says it is taking the next step toward industrial production. Dr Sebastian Rakers, cofounder and co-CEO, says "With the facilities at our new site, we are laying the foundations to supply the first markets. In Hamburg, we have the ideal conditions to continue to grow and continuously reduce production costs."

At present, the cost of producing cultivated fish is still higher than the average price of wild and farmed fish, but this will gradually change as capacity increases. "If the scalability and market conditions are favorable, we will be able to offer cultivated fish at wholesale fish prices in as little as three years. The new site is an important building block in this development," Rakers says.

BLUU Seafood expects the first approval in Singapore in early 2025, with the U.S., and the European Union to follow.