Land Ocean Farm

Land Ocean Farm is building the technology and the network to produce seafood in a land-based and bio-secure environment in the UK. Using a recirculating aquaculture system, this will combat both food fraud and food miles to provide healthy, nutrient-dense and pollution-free seafood at an affordable price for restauranteurs, retailers and consumers – and create a diversified income stream for UK farmers.

The Product

Restaurants and retailers import 721,000 tonnes of fish and seafood every year. Of this, 78,000 tonnes are prawns and shrimps, often shipped from thousands of miles across the globe. As restauranteurs themselves, the founders of Land Ocean Farm, Litu Mohiuddin and Rasel Mahmud, have found that the quality is inconsistent, often poor, and expensive.

Traceability and transparency in the fish supply chain is poor. Despite Europe’s very strict food safety policy for many products, seafood shipped from across the world is difficult to trace due to a fragmented and under-regulated system, making it difficult to know if harmful chemicals, antibiotics or hormones have been used in the production and shipping process.

By developing bio-secure, land-based, aquaculture production facilities in the UK, Land Ocean Farm aims to produce consistent supplies of fresh, quality shrimp, that addresses traceability as well as environmental issues in current supply chains.

This will reduce the carbon footprint, food miles and biodiversity pressures of overfishing in natural water resources, producing seafood sustainably and responsibly. The indoor recirculating system will operate using green energy from an anaerobic digestion plant to provide heat and power while water is recycled many times over and any organic residues are returned to the AD plant creating yet more green energy. Being produced in the UK for the UK market will reduce energy requirements and carbon emissions resulting from freezing and transporting containers of shrimp from distant waters.

Working with world-leading aquaculture experts, Land Ocean Farm has established the technology and will be building its first plant in 2022.  Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food sectors in the world and this will be the largest scale producer yet in the UK. Land Ocean Farm plans to partner with farmers looking for diversified income, to build satellite units for production and enhance the circular economy. For example, farmers can use excess heat from AD plants powered by farm waste, as well as use crop byproducts to make fish feeds and generate fish waste compost to add nutrients to their soil.

“Our success in aquaculture depends on others being successful with us, so we want to collaborate and create that success together,” says Rasel.

With their innate knowledge of the restaurant industry, Land Ocean Farm will sell mainly B2B as well as under its own brand to the consumer, developing, in time, pre-prepared, ready to cook and convenience products.