Proximar Seafood, the Norwegian-owned land-based salmon farming company developing its first production facility in Japan, has announced it has hired Javier Carreño as its new Production Manager.
Carreño has a long career in the Chilean salmon farming industry under his belt, having formerly worked in engineering and technical management positions for salmon companies including Cermaq and Atlantic Sapphire, where he was Grow-Out Manager. Most recently, he worked for Mowi Chile as head of their RAS unit.
This new role sees Carreño progress to Production Manager, and move from Chile to Japan, where he will be based at Proximar's land-based facility near Mount Fuji.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the appointment, Proximar COO Dharma Rajeswaran said, "We are excited to welcome Javier Carreño to the Proximar Seafood family as our new production manager," adding that his skills, experience and passion make him "a great fit for our team".
Proximar's Mount Fuji operation consists of a hatchery and nursery building, raising its salmon from egg to smolt of approximately 100g in size, and the forthcoming grow-out site, where the fish will be raised to a harvest weight of around 5 kg.
The company says the first transfer of fish to the post smolt grow-out facility is scheduled in Q4 2023, in accordance with its existing plan. The targeted long-term harvest level for Proximar is 5,300 tonnes (HOG) per year in Phase 1.
"The fish is performing well and growing better than expected. This supports the quality of our production facility and chosen technology, operational structure, and fish farming competence," said CEO Joachim Nielsen.
"The water quality remains good and stable, which we now see turning into good growth performance. This is very encouraging," he continued.
“We are very pleased to show the progress also in terms of biological development. The performance of the system is stable and mortality is lower than expectations. We’re very encouraged by this development, as Proximar continues to prepare for first harvest in Q3 2024," Nielsen added.
Proximar's land-based facility, which is still under construction and is due to be completed this year, is expected to be serving fresh salmon to Japanese consumers from 2024.
Proximar Seafood is a Norwegian land-based salmon farming company with its first facility and production at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. The company inserted its first batch of eggs in October 2022. Through land-based fish farming, using high-quality ground water secured close to Mount Fuji, the company will produce fresh Atlantic Salmon, harvested the same day. Proximar's location, near one of the world's most important fish markets, implies significant advantages, both in terms of reduced cost and carbon footprint.
