BUCKSPORT, ME – Central Maine Cold Storage is now open for business. The privately funded company formally unveiled its $2 million state-of-the-art, on-demand seafood freezing, packaging, and storage facility on Oct. 9 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attend by Gov. Paul LePage.
The company is offering IQF (individually quick frozen) and blast freezing processes for all food-grade seafood products, as well as bulky items such as bait. It also offers long-term storage in its 135,000-cubic-foot freezer.
Central Maine Cold Storage CEO Brian McCarthy stands beside the new facility’s IFQ tunnel. (Central Maine Cold Storage photo)
Among the driving motivations for building the facility, according to CEO Brian McCarthy, was a desire to provide close-to-home services to local businesses that have been transporting seafood products across the border for freezing.
“We want to work with those customers with a current frozen product who are getting that process done in Canada,” McCarthy said.
He added that 60%-70% of value-added processes for Maine seafood now take place in Canada.
“This does not have to be the case,” McCarthy said. “It makes sense logistically, financially, and employment wise to do this work here in Maine. Shipping to us is usually no more than one or two hours away at most and with no border to cross. Plus, we’re much closer to the ports of Portland and Boston from where product can be shipped out around the world.”…
Read the rest of these stories and much, much more in the November issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
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