Iterro Life Sciences, formerly known as trū Shrimp, is closing its facility in Balaton. trū Shrimp opened a research center in Balaton in 2015. A producer of what it touted as cleaner, safer, better-tasting shrimp, trū Shrimp started construction of its production facility known as Balaton Bay Reef in 2017; it was commissioned in August 2018.
Balaton Bay Reef encompassed an employee training center and the largest shrimp production facility in the Midwest. The 12,000-square-foot building addition housed one 150-footlong “reef” consisting of eight tidal basins. trū Shrimp was granted a license to sell its first shrimp commercially in 2019. The license from the state of Minnesota allowed it to process shrimp from an Agriculture Utilization Research Institute FDA registered food production pilot plant at Southwest Minnesota State University.
The company planned to break ground on another site in Luverne in 2019, but that never materialized because a Minnesota environmental rule concerning water discharge would have delated construction by one to three years, according to Aquaculture Magazine, which cited the Star Tribune as its source.
Another facility was also planned in Madison, SD, in 2019, a project that was pushed to 2024. That facility has not been built.
Brian Knakmuhs, of Balaton, was named Iterro president and CEO in 2023.
A message left by the Headlight at Iterro on Monday was not returned.
