Minnesota-based trū Shrimp gets processing approval, first commercial client

Minnesota-based trū Shrimp, which plans to build a shrimp production facility in South Dakota, announced that it has its first commercial customer.  

The Fish Guys, a seafood distributor in St. Louis Park, is the first-ever commercial customer for 500 pounds of trū Shrimp’s product, according to a story in the Marshall Independent. At the same time, the company’s CEO, Michael Ziebell, announced that the state of Minnesota granted trū Shrimp a license to process shrimp from an Agriculture Utilization Research Institute, FDA-registered food production pilot plant, located on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University. 

“This is a big day for trū Shrimp and a major milestone in our mission to provide consumers with all-natural, clean shrimp that are free of impurities,” Ziebell said in a media release. “We can now begin to test market our shrimp to targeted markets and consumers. We know that if given the choice, consumers prefer trū Shrimp and we’re excited to start providing our product to food service operators and shrimp consumers.”

The Fish Guys’ owner and CEO, Mike Higgins, said they chose trū Shrimp due to its plans for sustainable shrimp production. 

“trū Shrimp’s revolutionary technology and advanced water management process is a breakthrough. And the shrimp are superb; fresh, clean, sweet and absolutely beautiful,” Higgins said. “It will be exciting shrimp for us to sell.”

Initially, trū Shrimp was planning to build a USD 50 million (EUR 45 million) facility in Minnesota. However, regulatory issues prompted the company to move its first facility to Madison, South Dakota. 

Despite the move, the company still has a  “trū Shrimp Innovation Center” located in Minnesota that is producing product. 

“We have a limited amount of shrimp coming from the trū Shrimp Innovation Center, and we couldn’t be happier to have The Fish Guys as our initial partner,” said trū Shrimp Director of Sales and Marketing, Jamie Brink-Thordson. “We have invested significant time and money researching, validating and commercializing our technology and processes and this is one more step in our team’s journey toward transforming the shrimp industry right here in the Midwest.”