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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA biotechnology company says it expects to take over a defunct fish farm in eastern Indiana later this year and begin raising genetically engineered salmon.
Maynard, Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies bought the farm near the Delaware County town of Albany in 2017. The company's new annual report says it anticipates its first harvest of commercial fish production from the site in late 2019, according to the Muncie Star Press.
AquaBounty plans to use the facility about 75 miles northeast of Indianapolis to produce its genetically engineered salmon, for which it received federal approval in 2015. The company projects growing up to 2.6 million pounds of fish a year at the Albany facility.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Julia Putnam said AquaBounty must receive agency approval before it can produce the salmon at the Indiana facility.
AquaBounty acquired the facilities formerly used by Bell Aquaculture for $14 million.
Bell Aquaculture, founded in 2005, was growing into one of the country's major players in aquaculture until running into several lawsuits in recent years, including complaints for unpaid debt.
Bell announced plans for a $30 million expansion in 2014 and billed itself as nation's largest yellow perch aquaculture facility. But Dallas-based private equity firm Trive Capital acquired a majority stake in the firm in 2016 after it ran into more financial trouble.
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