INDUSTRY | Green Camel

Two of the fastest growing food sectors are organic food and aquaculture. In recent years, both sectors have come under increasing pressure from excessive demand and insufficient/unsustainable supply. Consumers are demanding high quality, safe and preferably organic foods.

THE INDUSTRY CHALLENGES

Growing demand for organic produce

Consumers are becoming increasingly health conscious, demanding organic crops grown using sustainable methods, however, are unwilling to waiver on quality, convenience and price expectations.

Australia’s dominant supermarkets have remodelled their store layouts to compensate the increased attraction to fresh produce, demonstrating the power of shifting consumer sentiment.

Preference for healthier proteins

Rising health consciousness has also boosted consumer demand for sources of protein that are perceived as being healthier, such as fish and seafood.

A primary battle of the aquaculture industry is to deal with fish waste. This restricts many producers from operating near a city due to such toxicity.

Consumers will continue to look towards more sustainable and efficient ways of obtaining quality protein without putting increased pressure on the environment.

Evolving production techniques

HORTICULTURE

Increasingly volatile climatic conditions, increasing scarcity of arable land and demand for land optimisation, increasing growing costs such as fertiliser and water, and the pollutive effects of excess fertiliser/pesticide run off are all contributing to the food producers’ transition away from traditional open field growing.

The risks associated with outdoor crops have become more costly and continue to threaten profitability, so there has been a shift away from traditional open field growing to advances in hydroponic producers.

Hydroponics has evolved to deliver stronger yields (~11 times) than traditional soil-based horticulture, leading to significant capital investment into the technique.

AQUACULTURE

Many of the world’s great ocean fisheries are under relentless pressure due to overfishing.

Aquaculture, long heralded as the solution to the fall in wild catch, has run into limitations due to problems caused by the enormous quantities of waste that such operations release to the environment on a daily basis.

GREEN CAMEL OPPORTUNITIES

Green Camel target market

On a consumption basis, many fresh produce categories, including tomatoes and leafy greens, are growing at faster rates than the Australian population growth rate.

The Green Camel Cobbitty facility has successfully grown Basil, Coriander, various Baby Leaf Lettuce, Parsley, Baby Leaf Spinach, Rocket and a variety of Asian Greens.

Premium Barramundi

Green Camel is currently producing Barramundi, which have gained a reputation as one of Australia’s finest eating fish.

Currently, Green Camel’s Barramundi is being sold to Australia’s wholesalers. We have commenced negotiations with a number of parties for a preference off-take agreement, whereby we would supply approximately 40 tonne of Barramundi per annum. Production capacity of the completed Cobbitty 2.0 project will be approximately 42 tonne.

Further, Green Camel has achieved a wet food conversion ratio of 0.9 to 1. This means for every 900 grams that we feed the fish, we get one kilogram of saleable fish.

Green Camel’s symbiotic horticulture / aquaculture system

HORTICULTURE

Our yields match that of hydroponics, without the associated risks and energy demands.

Our soil-based horticulture allows our crops to better capture desired nutrients such as calcium and vitamin C and they are certified to be organic.

AQUACULTURE

Green Camel’s systems filters and reuses 100% of fish discharge. Every piece of fish waste and every drop of water that is used to produce the fish is converted into useable inputs to grow the crops. This means every drop of water is used twice.

FORECAST PRODUCTION ON COMPLETION OF COBBITTY 2.0

52000Kg - Barramundi

620000Kg - Tomatoes

191942Kg - Leafy Greens

THE GREEN CAMEL SOLUTION

Our solution to these challenges is an integrated aquaculture-horticulture system that produces both fish and vegetables in a symbiotic manner with zero pesticides.

One of the fundamental principles of best practice farming is to manage the nutrient cycle within the farm system wherever possible, making the waste stream from one process the feedstock for another.

By taking the waste from aquaculture and safely processing it to create an allowable input to organic crop production, Green Camel turns a waste stream into a nutrient stream.

The system operates as a semi-closed biosphere (inside a state-of-the-art glasshouse), waste from fish production is captured and transformed into plant available nutrition allowing maximized plant production.

It addresses the issues of waste in aquaculture and decreases input costs and environmental burdens of horticultural production.

Green Camel operations ensure every drop of water is used twice.