Company and Management Background
Aquasafra means water harvest in several Latin based languages. Aquasafra is
owned and operated by hands-on, career hatchery managers. Company partners
Jim Riggin and Mike Picchietti founded the company in 1991. They grew and expanded
the company by the income produced from products. This solid, debt free base, provides
low overhead staying power making us the oldest and largest Tilapia hatchery
business in the United States. In 2021 the company was taken over by new management
who continue to run the company in the same successful fashion as the founders.
Aquasafra is now expanding to improve it’s capacity, consistency and year round
supply, and is accelerating its brood stock improvement program.
In an industry were experience is vital, Aquasafra maintains
the industry track record that secures your seed stock decision. Our
sub-tropical Florida site allows for low cost production and the economies to
maintain and develop on-going genetic improvements in our lines. Our 4-acre
facility encompasses a variety of technologies and systems for stable
production throughout the year. We utilize both low tech outdoor and high
tech indoor recirculating technology for the production of our products. This
combination allows us to manage and control quality, supply, disease and
costs so that only top quality fingerlings and broodstocks are shipped to our
customers. We have installed a 40,000-gallon recirculating growout system to
test and develop various genetic lines in conditions similar to many of our
clients systems. Our location near the airports of Tampa, Orlando and Miami
allows for rapid World access at the lowest costing freight rates in the country.
Brood Stock Strategy
In a nutshell, the philosophy behind the approach we take to produce our
growout fingerling product can be summed in HYBRIDIZATION. Aquasafra is able
to afford and utilize the integration of several select lines in our final
hybrid product. According to our customers who have compared other
fingerlings side by side with Aquasafra’s, our seed has exceeded all
competitors. Our competitor’s seed are taken from single species breeding
the same family into each other year after year. Aquasafra seed is superior
because we are taking advantage of hybrid vigor (heterosis), crossing
distinct, non-related lines, resulting in faster growth of either parent.
Besides faster growth our customers have expressed; lower FCR’s, increased
resistance to poor water quality and disease, improved live haul transport
and a greater cold tolerance. Bottom line: Aquasafra’s fish is the toughest,
fastest growing seed on the market, just ask the multitude of farmers who
have used our fish over the last 10 years. We improved our lines through
traditional selection, growout trails and hard work. With our facility
design, location and low production costs, we are able to produce and select
from larger populations in trait selection. This huge advantage and cost
saving is passed onto our customers and guarantee that Aquasafra will remain
competitive in the years to come.
We stay abreast with the new genetic developments our academic community is
promoting and will utilize these tools once the hype becomes reality. We feel
there is no short cut to basic selection. Beware of unproven promises. We do
not use our customer’s facilities to test new and unproven lines, with
Aquasafra your assured proven seed lines with known growth rates. The rest is
up to your management and system.