Tazewell indoor salmon farm adjusts course

The $228 million Pure Salmon facility on 200 acres straddling Tazewell and Russell counties has hit a snag with construction delays and is pushing back its expected timeline.

Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young says construction progress has not proceeded as anticipated on the Virginia branch of the United Arab Emirates-based Atlantic salmon farming and processing business’ project, which is expected to create about 200 local jobs. Factors contributing to the delay, he says, included supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and inflationary pressures.

But the plan for the indoor fish farm continues making its way upstream.

Pure Salmon graded 100 acres to prep for a foundation in 2022 and is working with Russell County to build an access road. The next construction phase, including groundwork, will start in early summer, Karim Ghannam, co-founder and chief investment officer of 8F Asset Management, a Singapore-based private equity firm backing Pure Salmon, said during an April visit to Virginia.

The company now has plans to rework some engineering in the facility’s design to mitigate rising construction costs over the past three years, Young says, and it aims to capitalize on state bank bonds and additional fundraising efforts to address financial challenges stemming from inflation. Pure Salmon declined to disclose its budget.

“That’s one of the reasons they’re here; it’s a very strategic place where the land is cheap, the labor is a little bit less expensive, but you can still access those markets. And in the seafood industry, time is of the essence,” he says.

Says Lala Korall, a consultant for Pure Salmon, “We hope to be complete with construction by the end of 2028.” (When first announced, Pure Salmon had aimed for a 2023-24 delivery.)

Production will occur in phases, with salmon eggs entering the facility and fish being harvested before construction is complete, Korall says.

Pure Salmon Virginia has four employees currently but indirectly employed about 100 workers via earthwork subcontractors and engineering teams earlier.

Young says the project will diversify the region’s economy and provide jobs ranging from aquatic veterinarians to fish filleters, with wages above the local average.

“We’ve been dependent on the coal industry for a long time here, and it has ups and downs … but food is food,” Young says. “People are always going to have food, so this should be recession-resistant as far as jobs.”