Shrimp Farm Opens in North Las Vegas

Around 90 percent of the shrimp eaten in Las Vegas come from Southeast Asia and China. But there's a new fish farm in North Las Vegas growing local seafood and providing local jobs.

The shrimp from Asia are injected with preservatives and frozen before shipped. But for the first time, Nevadans are finding jobs growing our own shrimp.

"We consume more shrimp per capita in Las Vegas than anywhere else in the world -- 22 million pounds of it annually," said Greg Orman with Ganix Bio Technologies.

Dozens of tanks filled with 50,000 shrimp each is the work of Ganix Bio Technologies. They opened southern Nevada's first shrimp farm at Apex, near I-15 and U.S. 93. New water recycling technologies allow the shrimp farm to exist in the desert, closer to the Las Vegas restaurant chefs looking forward to using this fresh shrimp for their menus.

"It's all about texture when you're freezing a product. Shrimp is a perfect example of that. When you freeze that, it gets a little tough and chewy," said Border Grill Executive Chef Mike Minor. "This product, it's never frozen so it's going to be fresh."

The shrimp farm is within North Las Vegas city limits, giving the city much-needed property tax revenue. The $6 million shrimp farm currently employs a dozen people. They have plans to hire more employees once production ramps up.

The company has plans to build shrimp farms in other inland cities, including Dallas, Kansas City and Reno.

The North Las Vegas farmed shrimp will make it's restaurant debut at Mandalay Bay restaurants. Their maximum production will be 450,000 pounds a year, and Las Vegas consumes 22 million pounds annually.