Bell Aquaculture LLC held a grand opening event on July 1 for its Bell Farms Aqua Feed mill located in central Indiana. More than 300 fish farmers, government officials and industry experts attended the event held on-site at Bell Farms in Albany, Indiana.
This mill represents the last major step toward completion of a vertically integrated aquaculture farm that has long been in development by the team at Bell. This vertical integration includes a 1,000 metric ton fish farm, an in-house processing facility, and production of value-added products generated from capture and cultivation of by-products.
“A longtime dream has been realized here today. I am very proud of our team, our partners and our community for working together to make this dream a reality and take this critical step toward providing a solution to our coming food deficit,” said Norman McCowan, president and CEO of Bell Aquaculture.
“This truly is a momentous occasion and a milestone in what Brian Baldwin and I began almost a decade ago,” said Michael Miller, co-founder of Bell Aquaculture. “It is amazing to see what a group of individuals can come together to achieve.”
Led by Steven Craig, the feeds from this mill will be tailored to the nutritional, biological and physiological needs of specific species at key points in the life cycle of the fish. The mill will be the first of its kind to produce feed locally to service the aquaculture industry on a mass scale. Bell Farms is expected to produce approximately 2 million pounds of feed per month, sourcing more than half of its ingredients locally.
