After speaking with Oscar Hennig, the Operations Director of Benchmark Genetics Shrimp, it is inevitable to think of the word ‘Aloha.’ Used as a greeting, Aloha means ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye,’ but they say that, if we refer to its literal translation, ‘Alo’ means ‘presence’ and ‘Ha’ means ‘breath,’ so ‘the presence of breath or ‘breath of life’. And it was just that, a breath of life, what Hawaii meant for this Brazilian who arrived on the island of Hawaii in the late ’90s following his passion for marine shrimp aquaculture.

Hawaii is now his home, and he often travels around the world. He does so, especially to Benchmark Genetics’ production facilities in Florida and its nucleus breeding center in Colombia and Asia, where many of his clients are. The island is in the middle of the road – “not a bad place”, he jokes – but it is much more. Jim Wyban, the founder of High Health Aquaculture Inc., said in this interesting article in Hawaii Business Magazine back in 2014 that Hawaii deserves the title of the World’s Shrimp-Breeding Capital.