Oceanpick's barramundi for culinary industry

Oceanpick organized a tour of the company's fish farm and nursery sites in Trincomalee, for culinary teams from leading hotels in Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, to experience first-hand Sri Lanka and South Asia's first-ever commercial scale oceanic barramundi farm, which offers a year-round supply of fresh sea grown barramundi while empowering hotels to source sustainably.

Key Account Executive Shabir Ahamed conducted the personalized tour for the chefs. The group was taken on a boat tour of Oceanpick's off-shore sites. The company is investing in familiarizing Sri Lanka's culinary industry leaders on its innovative sustainable seafood offering and methodology, whilst empowering the industry to offer premium sustainable seafood to customers. The first phase of Oceanpick's fish farm project has been completed with a US$4.5 million investment. It has a production capacity of 400 MT, but the company anticipates doubling the capacity to 1,000 MT within the next couple of years.

Executive Chef Priyantha of Grand Hotel said, "Cooking with sustainable ingredients is a growing trend globally and is increasingly being used in food and beverages. More interestingly, this responsible farming method by Oceanpick produces high quality seafood without compromising on taste, which is an important factor for us as chefs, because eventually customers want to relish the food.""Since Sri Lanka attracts tourists from all over the globe where sustainable sourcing is a practice, we too have to be geared to fulfil customer requests for sustainable seafood," he said. Executive Chef Namal of KCC, Kandy, said, "The visit to Oceanpick's fish farms has been extremely informative and an eye-opener on how the industry can position itself as a destination offering sustainable seafood. As hoteliers based in the hills, the challenge of accessing quality marine fish has now been addressed with weekly harvests being brought to our doorstep."

In the National Restaurant Association of US's 2016 culinary forecast, sustainable seafood ranks ninth amongst the top 20 food trends. Globally, leading hotel chains have adopted sustainable seafood programs into their supply chain in response to environmental concerns. Oceanpick now offers Sri Lankan hotels the opportunity to adopt this global standard by supplying them with sustainable seafood to protect the island's marine resources.

The goal of sustainability is to balance the needs of today without negatively affecting future generations, while also protecting the interests of those who work in the seafood and fishing industries.

Sustainable seafood is caught or farmed using methods that prioritizes the long-term life of the species as well as the well-being of the oceans. Dwindling natural marine resources are forcing countries to rethink their marine fishing policies - and Oceanpick is the first visionary company in the region to launch sustainable seafood sourcing in response.