Quixotic Farming: Expansion for Missouri tilapia farm in full swing
Quixotic Farming, a family-owned, sustainable seafood company that raises traceable, United States tilapia, has begun its expansion of its Missouri farm by purchasing 27 new fish tanks for the facility.
The first load of new tanks was delivered on May 4th to Quixotic Farming’s Missouri facility located at the south end of Chillicothe in a once-vacant Wal-Mart building. This farm is already home to approximately 250,000 tilapia that live in 33 ten thousand gallon tanks. Each tank is equipped with its own filtration and recirculation system, which allows Quixotic Farming to sustainably reuse the water that fills each tank.
By adding the 27 new tanks, Quixotic will increase its water capacity by 250,000 gallons. The farm will be able to hold approximately 200,000 more fish.
“The additional tanks should increase our production by about 70 percent,” says Randy Constant, Founder and CEO.
Right now, the company ships all of its fish to its second farm location in Colorado to be processed. But with the added tanks and water capacity in Chillicothe, the company has a new goal in mind: to open a second processing facility in Missouri.
“The goal is to expand in Missouri and reach the size of our Colorado facility so that it makes sense to process in both locations,” says Constant.
By Wednesday, May 11th, the remainder of the new tanks were delivered to the Chillicothe farm. The tanks will be setup and ready to house fish by the end of the summer. At that point, the Wal-Mart building will be at half capacity. According to Constant, the hope is to fill the rest of the building with tanks in the next 18 months, at which point, the Missouri facility would be complete.