Happy Shrimp (Rotterdam) - Europe’s first tropical shrimp farm in a closed inland system

The Happy Shrimp Farm

The Happy Shrimp Farm is the first tropical shrimp farm in Europe. It is an example of a new eco-industrial company in the port of Rotterdam that benefits the economy and environment.

This greenhouse-enclosed farm is located on the dunes near the city of Rotterdam. It is co-sited near a power plant of E.ON Benelux utilizing the waste heat for warming the farm. The company was set-up in two years time by Bass & Gill BV. The management consists of Gilbert Curtessi, Bas Greiner and Job Munten.

The whole farm is operated with the highest standards of food hygiene and quality. An ISO 22,000 system is implemented throughout the whole process. The baby shrimp come from broodstock farms in the Caribbean: these farms are certified and closed inland systems. The Happy Shrimp Farm is a closed recirculation system, which means nothing can enter or exit. Schmidt Zeevis Rotterdam and the entire supply chain are setup to deliver quality fresh and live shrimp to the restaurants.

"Dutch start-up Happy Shrimp is Europe’s first tropical shrimp farm, located in the very non-tropical port of Rotterdam. Promising fresh (‘superfresh’) shrimp, aimed at local restaurants, the business is taking on low cost shrimp farming in Asia. It does so by smartly capitalizing on trends that the competition may find hard to latch on to.
First of all, Happy Shrimp is thoroughly eco-friendly. Its farm is located next to a power plant and benefits from a heat-exchange system, using waste heat that would otherwise be released into the air. Farm waste, meanwhile, is used in a biological filter bed (many existing shrimp farms in the southern hemisphere pollute coastal wetlands).

Secondly, Happy Shrimp promises demanding consumers that the food on their plate is safe and unpolluted. An ISO 22,000 system is implemented throughout the whole process, while the farm is a closed recirculation system, which means nothing can enter or exit.
Thirdly, as the current trend in food and beverage is all about freshness, with supermarkets increasingly shifting from packed and canned goods to fresh, if not produced on the premises offerings (STILL MADE HERE indeed!), Happy Shrimps prides itself on being able to deliver shrimp to local restaurants within hours after ‘harvesting’, without freezing or month-long travels on mega-freighters. (...)"
(font: trendwatching.com)

Here is the link to the dutch Company, Happy Shrimp Farm 

Here is the link to a press release from E-On Benelux, congratulating Happy Shrimp Farm on festive opening, dated 01.09.2006.