Kilic opens bass, bream farm in Dominican Republic, aiming for US market

Turkish seafood company Kılıç Deniz, one of the world’s biggest producers of bream and bass, has recently started growing those fish in an aquafarm that it acquired in the Dominican Republic.

The company began cultivating the fish at the Caribbean facilities in July, and expects to start selling the fish juveniles it produces there in North and South America in 2018.

Kılıç Deniz already has trout farming facilities in Albania and does fish-feed raw material production in Mauritania. It is also currently researching investment opportunities in some African countries, including Somalia.

Kılıç Deniz Products' Deputy President of Board İhsan Bozan said the company already exports Mediterranean fish to the U.S. market. However, “in order to sell more to the U.S. market, we chose the Dominican Republic because of its transportation advantages and suitability for growing Mediterranean fish.”

He added, “We would like to carry our knowledge and experience in aquaculture there and reproduce local species as well.”

Bozan said his company exports to 37 countries, “notably to Europe and Russia. Currently we grow a total of 60,000 tons of bream, bass, drum and trout and we export 70 percent of our production.”