Geoduck, Sea Cucumber and Me

 

A Perfect Partnership - Asian Delicacy meets Western Knowhow

 

Luxury Asian Seafood Business with Land and Sea Ranch for equity sale

An rare opportunity exists to enter a closely guarded industry where Geoduck and Sea Cucumber licences are worth millions of dollars.

The proforma shows a very high yield on investment after an initial product grow out period. Investment of $20M will help to provide a $28M sustainable yearly harvest of the highest grade product.

The Principal, who is keen to invest in teaching and guiding the next generation of owners, is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Geoduck Clam Aquaculture. In 1977, he was a Founding Director of the Underwater Harvesters’ Association (UHA) and through many years of diving, harvesting and hatchery research, has an unsurpassed understanding of creating a healthy and productive sea ranch. 

 

The group owns and runs a shellfish aquaculture hatchery, built at a cost of $6M, and have the largest equity position in sub-tidal Geoduck aquaculture tenures in British Columbia.

 

These tenures are in various stages of development. Empty, the tenures have a market value of over $20 million. Their value has greatly increased due to successful geoduck planting and growth. Over the last three years, the hatchery produced over 6 million Geoduck seeds. Much of this crop has been planted and sold and currently covers over 20 hectares of the 89 hectare tenure. 

This program of planting is on-going and after the first eight year grow out period, the tenure is calculated to yield a $28 Million harvest per year. 

The hatchery also currently sells Oyster seed and is in the process of culturing Sea Cucumber, Cockle, Urchin and Scallop.

Macdonald Commercial are pleased to present for an investment of $20,000,000 the offering of an equity position in the following:

• 89 Hectare (220 Acre) Savary Island sub-tidal tenure and hatchery with multi-species hatchery license and associated 8 acre property on Victoria Island

• A Geoduck license, three Sea Cucumber licenses and the aquaculture tenure harvest (immediate return through supply of wild Geoduck and Sea Cucumber). A single Geoduck licence has a market value of $6M (there are only 55 licences available in BC).

Wood Micro Apartments?

Economics dictates that you should build your development with wood framing if the building code lets you - unless a buyer will pay the required extra $100+ per square foot to live in the perceived solidity and safety of concrete construction.

After all, will anyone really care once the plasterboard has been set?

Recent evidence shows that the home buyer in Canada will live in smaller quarters in concrete buildings, but can the current 'micro-sized apartment' movement find opportunity in a wood framed building?

The question is a cultural history one.

In downtown Melbourne, Australia, there is one of the tallest modern timber buildings in the world (10 floors) and no one seemed to mind when the sales began. In Canada, though - a land established on tales of tall timber, it can be a concern.

Evenings toasting marshmallows in front of the campfire may not have helped the timber industry. Is it possible that deep in the Canadian psyche everybody knows: wood burns. More than that - there is a lot of it in British Columbia and like any supply and demand scenario, that makes it seem less valuable.

Add to this the bad press of the leaky mould producing four storey wood frame buildings of the nineties and wood is fighting a huge battle for equality.

In Canada the government has pushed back some, calling for wood to be a major component in any public building. Here, 'Cross Laminated Timber' and 'Laminated Veneer Lumber' known as mass timber construction is doing well to bring solidity to the wood debate.

However, in the developer's world (where the coal mine canary lives), the question for micro-apartments and wood framed buildings remains: "If you build it, will they come?"

The answer may lie in mass timber panels and prefabrication, where computer driven accuracy and fine detail resolution can bring a renewed opportunity to express the beauty of wood.

Starting to Understand your Chinese Customer

Strange as it seems, Mandarin and Cantonese actually have the same written language, but completely different pronunciation.

With written Chinese there are two versions: ‘Traditional’ and ‘Simplified’. The simplified version was brought in with the advent of the communist government in China, while the traditional version may be more commonly used in other countries. Some Chinese people feel strongly attached to one version or the other.