To Our Dedicated Readership,
As you know, not all Tilapia are created equal. Whether it’s due to unsustainable farming practices or how the meat is treated during distribution, the Tilapia that ends up on your plate can vary in quality and taste. As a Tilapia producer, we—the Regal Springs family—want you to know our fish is a premium product, and has been for three decades. Through stories that highlight why and how to eat more Tilapia, we aim to educate readers about the benefits of including more of this great white fish into your family’s diet.
2018 marks our 30th anniversary, and as we celebrate our success, we look at how we became the largest vertically-integrated Tilapia farmer in the world. We can guarantee it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.
Sustainable Beginnings
It’s been 30 years since our founder Rudi Lamprecht started farming fish, and that was long before sustainability was “cool”. Lamprecht worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in the 1980s and brought food to impoverished communities in Java, Indonesia. Along the way, he became passionate about sustainability and helping these communities develop practices that allowed them to provide for themselves. For two years, he attempted to farm catfish, but when this proved unsuccessful, he made the switch to Tilapia, and the rest is Regal Springs history.
In the early Regal Springs’ days, Lamprecht focused on producing small volumes of Tilapia in clean spring waters while collaborating with local farmers and providing employment to individuals in the surrounding community. Soon, the company transitioned from creeks to floating pens on lakes where Tilapia already grew.
Our dedication to sustainability is part of everything we do—in each lake where the Tilapia are farmed, we constantly monitor water quality and ensure our Tilapia are unable to escape into the lake waters so we don’t harm the natural environment of the lakes.
Giving Back Around the World
Giving back to the communities where our fish are farmed has been part of our goal since day one. It’s how we make sure our Tilapia are of the highest quality, so we invest in infrastructure and improve communities everywhere we farm. Our original farms in Indonesia are a great example of this. We encourage our employees to become entrepreneurs and grow their own Tilapia with fingerlings (baby Tilapia) they purchase from us. These Tilapia are then sold in Indonesia and our employees are able to help their own communities with food security. And as we expanded operations to Mexico, and then Honduras, our goal never changed.
Part of our dedication to farming the best Tilapia possible is ensuring it helps both those who farm it and those who eat it. Our Tilapia is a vital food source in most of the communities where we farm, and the quality of Tilapia they eat is the same as you find at your grocery store. Multiple international multiple international program, such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Global Aquaculture Alliance, and Ocean Wise, all hold our Tilapia to the highest standards. It is all-natural, and free of antibiotics, mercury, and preservatives.
As the world population continues to grow, we know we are helping to provide food security around the world. In the United States, Tilapia is the fourth most consumed seafood, largely because Tilapia is a very affordable protein option. Our Tilapia can be found in popular grocers, like Costco and HEB, in your HelloFresh delivery, and at your favorite restaurants like SlapFish and Red Lobster. We also give back to communities in need in the US through SeaShare.
We created The Healthy Fish because we want our consumers to know how much we care about living in a world where everyone can afford to eat, and has access to, healthy food. Our dedication to sustainability is the apex of our legacy—we always go above and beyond to make sure our products are of the highest quality with the lowest impact.
Thank you for your support of The Healthy Fish and of our Tilapia over the years—you make everything we do possible.
The Healthy Fish & Regal Springs family
Photo Credits: Regal Springs