An economic impact study conducted by the University of Minnesota projects that construction of just one trū Shrimp Harbor, a shrimp production facility, would generate more than $48 million in economic activity in the southwest Minnesota region. Construction of the nine-acre facility would result in $14.5 million of labor income and support an estimated 330 jobs. Once the Harbor is constructed, it will continue to generate an estimated $23 million annually in economic activity and provide employment directly and indirectly for 124 people.

“The University of Minnesota confirmed that the integrated model and scale will have a dramatic impact on the communities in which a trū Shrimp Harbor is built,” trū Shrimp president and chief executive officer Michael Ziebell said. “The construction of a Harbor will be a boom to local communities, and it will also mean good-quality and well-paid jobs for the long term. The people who work in a Harbor are going to be technically qualified and trained. Also, the economic impact doesn’t consider feed commodities required for a Harbor, including corn, soybeans and hard red wheat. Trū Shrimp is creating more than economic ripples; it is an economic tsunami.”

Trū Shrimp is making all preparations to begin Harbor construction in the spring of 2018. The first fully integrated shrimp company also plans to construct two shrimp hatcheries, which will provide enough young shrimp to continuously stock as many as three Harbors. The production from one Harbor is forecasted to exceed 50% of current U.S. shrimp aquaculture production. In addition to a Harbor, trū Shrimp is looking to Marshall and Lyon counties in Minnesota for the processing facility, distribution sales/marketing and hatchery.

Ziebell said trū Shrimp is an opportunity for people from the Midwest to invest in the Midwest.

“We are building the trū Shrimp company on the idea that the people of the Upper Midwest are the first to invest in a Harbor and the trū Shrimp company. We are not going to the coasts or Wall Street for investment money but invite the agriculture community of the Upper Midwest to invest here and allow that money to grow and provide a return to everybody,” Ziebell said.

The University of Minnesota has been further commissioned to create additional economic impact studies for all of the infrastructure the trū Shrimp company requires for operation, including a genetics center, two hatcheries and processing facilities.

Trū Shrimp is a brand of Ralco, a third-generation, family-owned, multinational company with distribution in more than 20 countries. Ralco is a leading global supplier of livestock nutrition, animal health products and crop enhancement technologies that support large segments of the livestock, poultry, aquaculture and crop production industries.