FELLSMERE — Cliff Morris’s vision is as colossal as the jumbo shrimp growing from sea monkey size “seeds” in his new Florida Organic Aquaculture operations in Fellsmere.
The South African émigré wants to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit in his new home country and lead the way for more expatriates to bring their money and dreams to these shores, relocating the wealth and solid job climate that once characterized the country in which his British ancestors thrived for more than four generations.
He already has 20 of the maximum 32 foreign investors allowed by U.S. law who like him have had to put up $500,000 in cash and submit to a thorough background investigation before receiving green cards to relocate here as entrepreneurs.
In addition to the approximate $3 million of his own seed money and the $10 million secured from fellow foreign investors, he needs $6 million more to build out the business.
What attracted him to the shrimp industry, which will also produce organic oysters and the sea asparagus delicacy that Asian markets desire?
The former money manager turned market trend analyst didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Profit,” Morris replied in his characteristic direct, honest and often humorous manner. “I have no background in the seafood business and it’s not necessary that I do. I saw a lot of potential efficiencies and I know enough to employ the leading experts to create even more leading-edge solutions than exist today. Efficiencies mean money, and every business needs money.”
He also identified sustainable food production as today’s highest growth sector, the market growing only more important as the space to produce it becomes more precious.
Under the giant barn roof that at 1,200 feet long spans 3.5 football fields, 20 above-ground ponds called raceways will hold 4 ½ million gallons of water.
They will produce a projected $12 million a year in revenue, mainly from the 8-inch shrimp that have been compared to sweet, tender lobster and may sell for $20 a pound.
Morris hired a technology expert to design computer systems that will allow as much automation as possible. Again, the seafood expertise is not a requirement.
“I don’t even eat shrimp,” Bill Yonesu said with a smile, adding earnestly, “but there is a huge amount of room for technical efficiencies.”
He is testing a pump system that will increase efficiency when moving water around the raceways and through all the phases in the symbiotic system, ultimately producing no waste.
For example, the oysters purify post-shrimp water as they do in the open sea, and sea asparagus sucks the salt from the water before the rest evaporates. The water-purification process earned a rare industry certification for sustainable water use.
“We turn problems into profit,” Morris said.
Yonesu and Morris are also testing a theory that shrimp emit different sounds when they are hungry, thus allowing the business to more efficiently deliver the industry’s biggest cost factor that is higher than labor, facilities overhead or utilities: feed.
The cycle of efficiency starts in round vats where shrimp are born from microscopic eggs. While Morris does buy eggs or hatchlings, which he considers seed, he can also produce his own if the supply should be compromised, totally independent of outside factors.
Currently, the invasive nonnative lionfish is threatening the shrimp industry, which has long since bounced back from the BP oil spill in the Gulf.
The predators do not allow for bounce-back because they feed on the juveniles of the species they threaten.
In addition to growing shrimp for human consumption, Morris’ Florida Aquaculture Foundation is researching in a Vero Beach lab ways to encourage the growth of bait shrimp, their near annihilation by lionfish creating a worldwide shortage.
The vats at the Fellsmere location are located near the barn in the 25,000-square-foot former lettuce packing house at the intersection of County Road 512 and the Fellsmere Farms Co. where the road turns south.
Already growing in the water is food, a “good” bacteria called bio-floc.
It supplements the soy-based feed and fosters a more healthy environment for securely farmed versus fickle wild shrimp.
The shrimp will then go into one of three smaller raceways inside the existing building. Shaped just like the Daytona 500 Raceway, water is circulated around the inside track.
The walls of the raceways are constructed of stacked sandbags, rather than the more expensive and environmentally unfriendly concrete, and covered with a heavy-duty black plastic liner.
All of the electronic, open water and pump systems will be securely locked down to prevent industrial espionage and theft of technology, and to protect the live produce from outside contamination and disease.
Locating the farm in Fellsmere allows numerous benefits, and one of them is access to a closed system of clean water, in exact juxtaposition to the notion that a seafood farm should be waterfront.
For traditional farming, wells are dug into a freshwater artesian aquifer that allows for little or no powered pumping. More importantly for aquaculture, a deeper aquifer beneath the entire state contains a clean source of saltwater.
Every aspect of the operation is leading edge, with advancements developed and discovered along the way, including the construction of the barn, built to Miami-Dade hurricane code, with a soy-based insulation planned that will act as an epoxy to provide even more strength.
A true family business, Morris’s son, Steven, is part of the construction team.
Efficiencies extend to construction. A large panel van with a platform built atop, nicknamed the barn-mobile, allows workers to stand and construct the interior of the roof and ceiling, with every tool and construction device or supply tucked inside or hung outside.
When a section is complete, the barn-mobile simply continues to drive forward.
The younger Morris, nicknamed Captain Steve by his crew, had a problem when the family first came to this country seven years ago, shared by other South African expatriates whose proper sounding lilt is otherwise music to foreign ears.
His workers could not understand his thick accent, so, like a foreign actor in a Hollywood movie, he has had to lose it, even adding a touch of Fellsmere farm twang.
Another Morris son is completing his doctorate in bio-science and will be added to the team.
The next phase is to pique the interest and purchase orders of restaurateurs and markets across Indian River County, Florida and beyond to buy into ocean fare that has been produced on land.
Already, former naysayers are salivating to enter the market.
“No one has had the guts to do what we’re doing,” Cliff Morris said of his foreign investors and others to follow. “Now that we have, everybody’s got a Ph.D. in hindsight.”
