Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 15, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 9 W PHYSICIANS Andrea Chiaramonte, MD, MPH Melinda Thacker, MD Johnathon Sillman, MD, FACS James Hughes, MD Cynthia Duhamel, PA-C Robert Moran, PA-C AUDIOLOGISTS Marla Allard, M.A., CCC-A Jane Ehnstrom, M.S., CCC-A Michelle Fleck, M.A., CCC-A Merrisa Murtha, AU.D., CCC-A • Adult and Pediatric patients welcome • Audiology and balance testing and medical treatment • Thyroid and parathyroid surgical evaluation and intervention • Sinus and nasal disease evaluated and treated • In Office surgery available if appropriate • All manner of Head and Neck masses and lesions evaluated and treated • Voice evaluation and treatment Professional Otolaryngology Specialty Care in a Kind and Compassionate Manner 100 Martin Luther King Junior Blvd. Worcester, MA 01608 Phone: 508-757-0330 • Fax: 508-752-9850 aohns.com Like us on controlled environment in which the fish are raised protects them from parasites, disease and predators. Since the fish won't be market ready for 18 months, the company is about two years away from turning a corner and giving shareholders a break with consistent revenues. e firm could break even in a couple years, Wulf said. "Once you hit that mark, this becomes a very profitable business," Wulf said. e firm's Canadian customers have been longing for a consistent supply of Atlantic salmon as suppliers struggle to keep up with demand, she said. Finding the right market Worldwide production of farmed At- lantic salmon was $14.4 billion in 2016, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A fraction of that – $67.6 million – was in the U.S, and that American share is down from $104.1 million in 2011. "at's one of the reasons our custom- ers are so interested is to have a supply domestically," Wulf said. With limited funds, the company doesn't quite know who those customers will be in the U.S., but some retailers have already said no. Wulf conceded organic-type chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's -- who were quick to say they wouldn't carry the product when the FDA approved it in 2015 -- were probably a lost cause. Other restaurants and grocery chains may need to wait and take the public's temperature. According to the company's own website, Costco and Target have said they won't sell genetically engineered salmon, and Jennifer Brogan, director of external communications and communi- ty relations at Quincy grocery chain Stop & Shop, said the product isn't something its stores would consider selling at this time. Since the fish is the first genetically modified animal product to be approved, it will take some time for the public to come on board, said Jon Springer, exec- utive editor of the industry publication Winsight Grocery Business. Generally, supermarkets will carry a product as long as it meets regulatory requirements. "is is certainly the case with other GMO products," Springer said. A sustainable food source e company's product comes as consumers are opting for more organic and natural foods, said Robb Ahlquist, owner of Worcester seafood restaurant Sole Proprietor, which would be a prime customer for AquaBounty. As such, Ahlquist won't serve the com- pany's salmon until consumers indicate a willingness to purchase the salmon. "We probably wouldn't consider doing it until there was a significant uptick in public acceptance of the products being in the marketplace," he said. However, Ahlquist, citing overfishing and supply concerns, said the market- place could make room for genetically modified foods like the AquaBounty fish as oceans become filled with more toxins. Most of the restaurant's salmon is sourced from an ocean farm in Maine. Even that product was viewed as taboo 20 years ago, but seafood farming is now taking off, Ahlquist said. Aquaculture, the farming of seafood under controlled conditions, is an indus- try poised to capitalize on that demand. According to Ireland market research firm Research and Markets, the global aquaculture market was valued at $176.5 billion in 2017. ere is very little wild salmon le to harvest, but Ahlquist does make a point to offer it when it rarely becomes avail- able, usually around the spring, although it is a different species. Wild Atlantic salmon have all but disappeared from the eastern seaboard, he said. "e farming industry saved it," he said. Atlantic salmon are a protected species and catching them in the wild is prohibited, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. e wild fish are also threatened when a farm-raised salmon escapes an ocean farm and breeds with wild fish. AquaBounty's facilities are an upgrade over ocean farming because multiple safeguards make it virtually impossible for a fish in a land-based facility to find its way into a nearby river, Wulf said. Wulf, who ran the seafood produce business for the $24-billion food distrib- utor U.S. Foods and came to AquaBounty in November, said the combination of environmental protection and the ability to sustainably provide a popular product brought her to the company. "I'm passionate about two things: Innovation and what it can do to help ensure that we can feed people; and sus- tainability, because we have to do it in an environmentally friendly way," she said. "When I did my research, AquaBounty checks both of those boxes." (From left) AquaBounty grows fish from eggs to juveniles to fully grown in order to make them ready for the dinner plate.

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