Chesapeake Business Ledger & Star Democrat, September 2006.
Three 20-something friends look to find success with shrimp farm
RICHARD MCNEY
Editor
HURLOCK - Friends Scott Fritze, Guy Furman and Andrew Hanzlik started Marvesta Shrimp Farms in 2002 with little experience, but a lot of enthusiasm. The three friends, who are all 26 now, were fresh out of college when Furman came to the other two with the idea of going into business together operating a shrimp farm. Furman has a masters degree in biological and environmental engineering and Fritze and Hanzlik have degrees in business administration. Fritze and Hanzlik met while attending Bucknell University and Furman has known Fritze since second grade. Furman came to Fritze and Hanzlik with the idea of combining his knowledge of aquaculture with their knowledge of business to open a shrimp farm.
"He said, you guys are going to think I am crazy, but I have this idea." Fritze said.
While studying at Cornell University, one of Furman’s professors was involved with researching aquaculture methods. Through his studies, Furman learned that the domestic shrimp industry was insignificant, despite shrimp being the highest consumed seafood in the U.S. The majority of shrimp eaten in the U.S. is imported from Asia and South America, making shrimp one of the highest trade commodities imported into the U.S. next to oil. Furman saw the potential for domestically producing shrimp in the U.S. through aquacultore and when he brought the facts to Fritze and Hanzlik, they jumped onboard.
"Aside from Guy’s experience we only knew we liked (shrimp), you can get it in a lot of places and it tasted good," Fritze said. "When Guy came to us, the numbers were staggering and we were almost baffled why no one else was even attempting to do this"
Getting started
"What we didn’t have in experience initially we made up with our shear enthusiasm that we could really do something revolutionary here for the industry and here in the U.S. specifically," Fritze said. Marvesta was chosen as the company’s name since "mare" means ocean and "ests" stands for the goddess of home and hearth.
After initially looking at several other areas to build their shrimp farm operation, the trio settled on Hurlock. Fritze and Furman grew up in Baltimore and Furman’s family had a home in Royal Oak, so he knew the area and was familiar with the region. Furman said the Eastern Shore’s agricultural and seafood heritage makes it a good choice for a shrimp farm. "Hurlock could not have been more helpful in dealing with three guys that had never done a business before," Furman said.
Town officials assisted Marvesta with the permitting process and even changed some of the Hurlock Industrial Park’s standards so the business could locate there. Hurlock’s close proximity to many metropolitan areas on the East Coast also gave them a strategic placement for sales.
While there had been some research done on shrimp aquaculture to base the business on, the research was not geared to operating a business and did not look closely into the economics of operating a shrimp farm. Operating an indoor shrimp farm had never truly been done on a commercial level in the U.S. and Marvesta is one of a handful of businesses operating commercial shrimp farms in the U.S., Fritze said. "We are constantly innovating because there is no blueprint or manual on how to do this," Furman said. Most of our days are spent innovating whether it is the system or design or products."
Indoor farming
Traditional shrimp farming is done in outdoor ponds that take up thousands of acres and are most often found in economically distressed areas of Asia and South America. The ponds are harvested twice a year and the yield is frozen and sold to the import market.
Marvesta Shrimp Farms is an indoor facility and one of the more high-tech shrimp farms around, Fritze said. "What we found was there was a way to successfully and reliably grow shrimp indoors which enables us to alleviate a lot of die common pitfalls associated with shrimp farming," he said.
The 100 percent recirculating enclosed system can operate 365 days a year, and shrimp can be harvested from it weekly as opposed to twice a year. Unlike outdoor shrimp farms, the indoor facility is less susceptible to air-borne viruses and diseases. The system essentially creates a natural ecosystem with natural bacteria and algae filtering the waste. The water is tanked in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Indoor shrimp farming also does not have the environmental effects that are associated with outdoor shrimp farming or traditional shrimp harvesting. Outdoor shrimp farming destroys mangrove forests and coastlines, and traditional shrimp harvesting by boat has led to overshrimping due to the substantial price connected to shrimp and the killing of other species as hycatch.
"Our first facility here actually represents our learning curve in where they hadn’t done the research." Furman said.
Marvesta’s first facility was built about three years ago and was truly an experiment in raising shrimp. Through experimenting with different setups, Marvesta picked the technologies that worked and were the most economical. About a year ago Marvesta built four additional tanks using everything they had learned and knowing what did and did not work,
’We have gotten so much better from our first construction attempts here to the four tanks out there," Furman said. The initial tanks were 10 feet deep and the shrimp were spread out using shelving systems through the water, but the concept was not economically feasible at the time, Furman said, Now the tanks are not as deep and there is no shelving system. The results have been much improved, Furman said. He added that the shelving concept may be tweaked and refined to make work in the future.
Fresh shrimp
Getting fresh shrimp in the U.S. is difficult. Most shrimp is frozen and imported, Fritze said. Therefore, Marvesta is really not competing against imported shrimp and has little domestic competition, especially competition that is fresh.
Marvesta’s shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei or white shrimp, comes from a hatchery in Florida when the shrimp are days old. Marvesta grows the shrimp for 150 to 180 days at their facility and it is shipped out to restaurants and other customers fresh on ice with the heads on. Orders placed by 1 p.m. can be shipped to the customer the same day.
The company does not use any antibiotics, steroids or hormones. Marvesta has built the company since 2002 to be an organic shrimp farm. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not have its own regulations for organic seafood yet (they should be available in 2008), Marvesta has built its facilities and procedures according to international organic certifications.
The company has been focusing on delivering fresh shrimp to high-end restaurants on the East Coast, primarily the Baltimore/Washington D.C. metropolitan area and several restaurants on the Eastern Shore.
Right now Marvesta has five buildings operating and can produce all sizes of shrimp every day of the year. Each tank starts with about 100,000 shrimp and Marvesta strives for a 65 percent survival rate. The shrimp must be separated by size because they are cannibalistic. Currently, Marvesta is producing about 50,000 pounds of shrimp a year, Furman said.
Marvesta should now be offering Internet sales direct to consumers.
Big goals
’The demand far outcedes our supply," Fritze said. "...Our biggest problem is really not growing shrimp fast enough."
The next step for Marvesta is building a larger facility, while keeping the current facility in production: The company is currently looking at a 19-acre lot at another location in Hurlock and would like to move forward with the facility this winter or next spring, Furman said. With the new facility they would be looking to build 50 tanks and increase their shrimp production to near 500,000 pounds annually. The company would also eventually like to raise the shrimp entirely from birth instead of purchasing the day-old shrimp from Florida.
The new facility would have enough space for packaging and warehouse facilities that licensing the shrimp aquaculture technology out to farmers to grow the shrimp for Marvesta would be a possibility, Furman said. The concept would work essentially like the poultry industry, where the farmers would produce the shrimp for Marvesta. In the distant future, having other production facilities outside major cities is also a possibility, Fritze said.
Marvesta is also considering raising different species of shrimp and other species that have high market value, Furman said.
"We could really be on the forefront and pioneer a complete shift in aquaculture to something that could he very sustainable and reliable and most importantly profitable here in the United States," Fritze said.
For information on Marvesta Shrimp Farms. visit www.marvesta.com or call 410943-1733. Free shrimp samples will be given out during the September First FridayGallery Walls at Creatrics in Easton from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.