Alltech plans new fish farm for Kentucky

In the Bluegrass State of Kentucky, animal nutrition firm Alltech plans to bring farmed fish, whiskey, and poultry to Pikeville as part of an initiative to develop business in the Eastern part of the state.

         While the bourbon distillery will be located downtown, the “layered” poultry and fish farm facility will occupy space in the Marion Branch industrial park situated on a 380-acre former surface mine site that is within the city limits of Pikeville and owned by the city.

         According to the company, 45 jobs are expected to be available at the aquaculture facility, worth an $8-10 million investment by Alltech.

         “We have plans to raise 1.2 million pounds of trout (in live weight),” wrote Alltech corporate spokesperson Susanne Elliot in an email. “We will feed them algae (high DHA omega-3) from our state-of-the-art heterotrophic algae plant in Winchester, Kentucky. Once the state begins work on the road and bridge to the Marion Branch industrial site, it will be 16-18 months before the facility opens. The road and bridge is required before construction can begin because the Marion Branch industrial site is located atop a reclaimed mountaintop.”

         In an article on the project in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Deirdre Lyons, co-founder of Alltech, said construction would start on the Dueling Barrels distillery when engineering and demolition were completed on the site Alltech now owns. Construction on the poultry and aquaculture farms will start when the access road and bridge are completed.

         Lyons said the distillery would cost $10 million to $12 million, the poultry facility $3 million to $5 million.  

— Erich Luening