Share
100% funded by 360 investors
Solar Sustainable Aquaculture
Algarve, PT
instalment
monthly
term
5 años
yearly interest
3.8%
risk rating
B
Solar energy for self-consumption in nature conservation area.
Description
NaturaFish is a seabass and seabream sustainable aquaculture. Harmoniously integrated into nature, it represents a sustainable alternative to wild fishing and high-density aquaculture in offshore cages, ensuring animal wellbeing and a positive environmental impact.
Located in ria de Alvor, in the Algarve region (South of Portugal), it is part of Natura 2000, the nature conservation areas’ network created by the European Union to ensure the survival of animal species and protect Europe’s most valuable habitats. The farm has 19 hectares of total area and 19 tanks with the capacity to produce 500 tons of fish per year. Due to its ideal geographic location, NaturaFish has the right natural conditions (climate, water quality, and natural food) to produce the highest quality seabass and seabream.
The project started in 2018 with the reclamation of an abandoned shrimp farm built on old salt ponds. First sales occurred in June 2020 and the company sold over 100 tons of fish in five months, expecting to reach operational and financial stabilization during 2021, with an annual production of 500 tons.
This is the fifth campaign of the promoter with GoParity, after raising more than 500.000€ in the previous ones. The first two aimed to finance the establishement of the business and part of the initial investment; the third and fourth campaigns served to provide extra working capital to the business. The funds raised in this campaign will be used to finance the installation of 61,2kWp of PV solar panels on NaturaFish's facilities. The total investment is 35.835€, of which the promotorer is funding 10% with own funds.
The Impact
Contribution to the decarbonisation of Portugal, by avoiding CO2 emissions: with a clean energy production of around 96 MWh per year, the solar energy central will avoid the emission of 19,6 tonnes of CO2 every year. This is equivalent to the average CO2 absorption capacity of 1,300 adult trees.
Cost reduction for the final client: the decentralized energy production through renewable sources, close to the consumption site, helps to avoid distribution costs, making this a more competitive option than reverting to the national grid. Furthermore, the decreased dependency of the company on the national grid, makes it less vulnerable to price fluctuations and fiscal charges.
Impact Indicators
19.5 T
CO2 avoided per year
96 Mwh
clean energy
Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals
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Financial viability
Viveiros da Espargueira's business appears to have picked up significantly in 2021 when compared to 2020, amid a year characterized by the global pandemic. Overall, the promoter is very close to achieving the numbers projected in their business plan and also reassures that business trends and global economic recovery put the business on the right track for growth and increasing profit.
All of the aquaculture sites are already working and the company has been producing bass and golden bream on them. In the case of the first one, production has been very positive, exceeding the expectations. On the other hand, the production of sea bream has presented poorer-than-expected results, given by the quality of the alevins and the weather conditions, that caused some diseases. Fortunately, the two opposite effects have offset each other, making the company present overall good results.
Even though the company has - and will continue to - raise debt, the financial autonomy has remained healthy.
The savings on the electricity bill from the use of the solar panels produced energy will be used to pay for the loan instalments.
Download Key Investment Information Sheet
The Promoter
About Viveiros da Espargueira - Actividades de Aquacultura S.A.
Viveiros da Espargueira Lda was founded in 2005. From that date to 2018, the company used the existing infrastructure to produce shrimps and did some tank improvements with the goal of adapting it to sea bass and bream farming. However, during this period the production was residual, and therefore the facilities ended up neglected.
In June 2018, the company started a new project with the goal of becoming a National reference in Aquaculture, NaturaFish. In that year, It developed a profound renovation of its facilities and have introduced the first alevins in September of that same year. Due to the 2-year cycle of production, the first sales occurred in June 2020.
NaturaFish was created to meet the growing global demand for natural, sustainable aquaculture by becoming Portugal’s leader in the farming of valuable local species for which demand exceeds biologically sustainable fishing levels, such as European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Its farming methods ensure animal wellbeing and create a positive environmental impact.
Location, experience, technology and innovation are success keys, working with nature, not against it.
NaturaFish’s first site is a 19-ha, salt-water, natural-pond farm in the Alvor estuary, in the Algarve southern province of Portugal. The farm is located 2.6 km from the river mouth. The farm’s ponds are part of the estuary and benefit from the natural water renovation occurring with the tidal exchange. Since there is no runoff from intensive agriculture or other industrial land uses upriver, the water quality in Alvor is excellent – clean and nutrient rich – key features in the raising of natural seabass and seabream, which feed on what the tide naturally brings with each water renovation. Salinity levels, water renovation, biodiversity, nutrition, weather, and other environmental conditions are all ideal for the farming of European seabass and gilthead seabream, which as wild fish are a part of the estuary ecosystem.
The Alvor farm is a parcel fully licensed for aquaculture inside a bird sanctuary that is part of Natura 2000, the EU network of nature protection areas. The heightened level of environmental protection that comes from being inside the Natura 2000 park ensures the long-term preservation of the environment surrounding the farm, including biodiversity and water quality, both key to the production of natural fish. Effectively, the Natura 2000 designation offers environmental insurance protection that substantially increases the value of the site.
NaturaFish’s proprietary farm management system gathers data from each pond allowing its team to remotely monitor and in some cases control water renovation, oxygen levels, temperature, feeding activity, and pathogens. The system is accessible via a proprietary mobile app allowing for 24/7 remote monitoring and management. Automatic SMS notifications inform of changes in conditions requiring the attention of a human. E.g., unusual changes in water temperature, water levels, feeding activity, or the suspected presence of pathogens.
Presets direct the system to automatically respond to changes in conditions in each individual pond without human intervention. For example, when oxygen concentration falls below a certain preset level, the system fires off the respective oxygen pumps until adequate oxygen concentration levels are restored to within acceptable limits, at which point the pumps are automatically disconnected. The system notifies the team of the occurrence – the change in conditions as well as any action taken.
The NaturaFish team has decades of experience in natural pond farming in Portugal’s clean inlets and estuaries.
The team
Miguel Theriaga
Partner & CEO at Viveiros da Espargueira SA, Portimão, Portugal (2018-present) Manager at Aqualvor Lda and Piscicultura Vale da Lama Lda, Lagos, Portugal (2000-18) Assistant Manager, Production at Janssen Cilag Farmacêutica Lda, Oeiras, Portugal (1992-2000)
Ricardo Costa
Production manager da Viveiros da Espargueira SA, Portimão, Portugal (2018-present) Site manager – Sole ongrowing at SEA8 Aquacria SA, Portugal (2013-2016) Sole Pre-ongrowing manager at SEA8 Aquacria SA, Portugal (2012-2013)
Nuno Battaglia
Chairman at Algarve Partners, Lagos, Portugal (2015-present) Co-founder National, Partner at Public Development Partners LLC, Utah, USA (2008-14) Co-founder, EVP, CFO, Director at HealthEquity Inc., Utah, USA (2002-07)
António Castel-Branco
CFO of Algarve Partners, Lagos, Portugal (2018-present) Investor and CFO of The Presidential Train, Lisbon, Portugal (2016-present) Regional Manager of Banco BPI, Algarve, Portugal (2014-2018)
Jorge Grave
Partner at Battaglia Capital SA, Lagos, Portugal (2016-present) Partner at Jilmarés Lda, Lagos, Portugal (2001-2018) Project Director at Angola LNG, Soyo, Angola (2014-2016)
Bernardo Empis Meira
BLUE CROW Partner - SOCIEDADE DE CAPITAL DE RISCO, S.A
Business Model
NaturaFish produces 400g and 800g European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and 400g gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Its per-kg price targets for 2020, 2021, and 2022 are between 7€ and 12€.
The Alvor farm has the capacity to produce 500 tons of fish per year. The company plans on growing its production capacity through the acquisition of sites on which to develop farms similar to the Alvor installation, with the same care for the animals it raises and the environment.
The Company’s sales strategy before the Covid-19 outbreak was to sell to HoReCa wholesalers. Since hotels and restaurants in 2020 saw a massive reduction in activity, the Company redirected its sales efforts to large retailers and distributors to local fish markets, institutional cafeterias, and small retailers.
In the short sales history, penetration into large retailers has steadily increased, with NaturaFish’s product positioned at the top of the market in both quality and price. In the medium to long-term, the goal is to position NaturaFish as a leader in the natural and sustainable aquaculture space by highlighting the Algarve as the origin and the organoleptic qualities of its products, highly appreciated by influencer chefs. In parallel with large retail distribution, and as hotel and restaurant operations normalize, the Company will increase penetration into the HoReCa channel through wholesalers.
Finally, NaturaFish is currently developing a direct-to-consumer communication strategy that may lead to direct-to-consumer distribution, which would allow it to shorten the distribution chain, increase margins, improve traceability and quality control and eliminate or mitigate certain distribution disruption risks. Even so, this is a long-term plan, involving an extended study of several operational and supply-chain issues.
Important to highlight is that, even during the Covid-19 period and having changed the distribution channels, the company was still able to consistently penetrate the big retail and maintaining their market top’s positioning in terms of quality and price.
Clients
- National Large Retail: Continente, Auchan; in advanced discussions with others.
- National Wholesale: Portfolio of 50+ clients.
- Exports: Wholesale distribution in Madrid, Seville, Vigo, Marseille, and Paris. Under advanced discussions with a global distributor of fish from sustainable aquaculture. Also developing contacts in the Benelux and Scandinavia and expanding client portfolio in Spain and France.
Suppliers
- Eeed: Aquasoja (R&D partner) and SkrettingL
- Fingerlings: Sourced from European nurseries
Active since
2005
Fiscal country
PT
Operating In
"Portugal"
Industry
Aquaculture
Number of Goparity Loans
5
Women Shareholders
No
Website
https://naturafish.com/Updates
2022-02-14
First payment
First instalment was paid to all the investors
2022-01-11
100% funded
340 investors successfully raised 32.300€
2022-01-07
Open for investment
This campaign will help avoid the emission of 20 tons of CO2 per year
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Investments in crowdlending carry a risk of a partial or total loss of the funds invested. The return on your investment depends on the project's success developed through the campaign in which you invest. Your investment is not covered by the deposit guarantee schemes established by Directive 2014/49/EU nor by the investor compensation schemes established by Directive 97/9/EU. Please consider all risks before investing and carefully read the Key Investment Information Sheet (KIIS) provided to you before investing.