The Company has a lease for up to 190,000 sq ft of former US Navy storage bunkers (and adjoining land) on Vieques, Puerto Rico that will be repurposed into a sustainable integrated food production system. The company will market high-quality, fresh, affordably priced, aquaponically grown produce, fish, and prawns for Vieques, USVI, and Puerto Rican marketplaces which would reduce the region's import dependency of fresh produce and fish. The leased bunkers and adjoining land will undergo environmental testing to ensure compliance with organic certification regulations for food production as well as HUD and other federal agencies’ regulations. Gregory Morris Engineering (“GME”) of San Juan, Puerto Rico will be contracted to perform this testing.
Vieques Aquaponics Inc. (“Vieques Aquaponics”, “VA” “we”, “our”, “us”, or “Company”) will initially produce and market high quality, fresh, affordably priced, aquaponically grown produce, fish, and prawns to local islands thereby, reducing the dependency on imports of fresh produce and fish. The produce and fish will be marketed as certified organic, fresh, nutritious, earth-friendly and, part of an active and healthy lifestyle.
"Aquaponics is a sustainable food production system combining RAS (recirculating aquaculture systems) and hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) to create a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial to both the plants and fish. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, depleting dissolved oxygen and increasing toxicity for the fish. However, when this nutrient-rich water is fed to an integrated hydroponic system, the waste nutrients from aquaculture are broken down by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, then filtered out by the plants as nutrients, after which the cleaned water is recirculated back to the fish. Unlike hydroponics, which relies on expensive imported nutrient supplements, aquaponics employs organic nitrogen-rich fish waste as an organic fertilizer. This fish waste, which includes ammonia excreted by the gills and solid waste, is broken down and oxidized into nitrate before the plants can absorb the nutrients. The decomposition is called mineralization and is carried out by two types of beneficial bacteria, Nitrosomonas sp. and Nitrobacter sp. This is commonly called the nitrogen cycle where toxic ammonia is converted to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate."
The efficiency of our Dachnik biofilters allows Vieques Aquaponics to intensify the number of plants to be cultivated and allows a greater amount of biomass of fish. By creating the full cycle growth of fish from reproduction to harvest, we can add the proper sized fish at the appropriate time to the cycle to obtain more harvestable fish.
The symbiotic nature of aquaponics is far superior to just aquaculture or just hydroponics. By never producing "waste" but recycling raw materials required for the health and nutrition of the coupled species, aquaponics allows the sum of 1+1 to be greater than 2.
The Company has unique technology in its ability to build aquaponic systems using:
After the Company is successfully operating in Vieques and is expanding its operations to other bunkers in Vieques, the Company plans to expand its technology and operations into other Caribbean countries that are prone to hurricanes and earthquakes to ensure there is always food security and a supply of sustainable food and water for their populations because of our indoor growing technology for growing food in storm-proof “grow” bunkers.
By its nature, Vieques Aquaponics production systems are going to have better controls than what are normally found in currently produced food. There will be integrated tracking and data collection systems that will direct management to the bunker number, production line, production lot by harvest date of all fresh produce, and fish production. There will be input controls tied to a cost accounting system. Each product will be codified. Therefore, with a lot number, one can find the product (e.g., red leaf lettuce), bunker number, production line, and harvest date. This system ensures accountability for identifying efficiency, deficiencies, isolating conditions or situations, disease, or quality problems, and even for making genetic selections for future production. Each packaging type will have a “lot number” that provides tracking and a “best when consumed by date” for consumers. As an example, each fish will have a tail tag that indicates the lot number. In the near future, a consumer will be able to input the fish lot number on our website and retrieve the life history of the fish including its diet, water conditions, production facilities, and recipes for cooking.
Production of our food products has not commenced. Once we take possession of the bunkers, we expect that the first two bunkers will be operational within nine months and an additional two bunkers will “go live” every four months after that until all the leased bunkers are in production.
As the produce and fish are ready for harvest, they will be picked, cleaned, packed, refrigerated, and shipped immediately. No food product will be stored as inventory.
We will have a dedicated distribution system that begins in the Packinghouse Bunker where produce is refrigerated and prepared for market.
The initial target markets are local users in the island of Vieques and distributors on the Puerto Rico mainland. After these initial markets have been developed, we will continue with a roll-out of our aquaponic systems to island territories and nations of the Caribbean Basin and eventually in other parts of the world in need of food and water sustainability.
We will have a dedicated distribution system whereby we will deliver our products to distributors of (i) produce, (ii) fish, as well as (iii) to specialty markets such as home delivery services and cruise ships.
We meet the requirements of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), SIB (Social Impact Bond) and the UN’s SDG (Sustainable Development Goals). This offering could be placed directly with an EGF (European Green Fund) who seek fully compliant investments.
The Company is devoted to agricultural development through its aquaponics technology. By initially repurposing the US Navy storage bunkers on the island of Vieques, we can mitigate most, if not all, of the nature-related risks related to food produced locally and in the Caribbean such as rising sea levels, higher temperatures, frequent and severe storms, irregular rainfall patterns and droughts. The repurposed bunkers and thereafter our “Bunker Grow Pods” will essentially provide nature-proof food production that relies on renewable sources of energy and water. With these qualities, we can reproduce our system on other Caribbean islands to feed their populations with sustainable food and later to other parts of the world.
Our aquaponics production model reduces the carbon imprint of our food, conserves water, increases nutritional value and flavor, creates resiliency in our communities, and develops local human resources.
Our systems will over time significantly reduce the Caribbean's dependence on imported food.
Vieques Aquaponics has the following advantages:
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