Port Fish could soon become a bustling seafood processing plant again after the BC Government announced funding for the province’s first Seafood Hub.
The Province will provide $750,000 and the Port Alberni Port Authority a further $500,000 to bring the Port Fish facility back to life for a group of small scale seafood harvesters.
BC Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said the money will not just go to restoring the buildings to food production standards, but also purchasing equipment that the seafood harvesters rent, until they’re fully able to stand on their own in the marketplace.
“Normally you would have to put a lot of money out to purchase equipment and have a place to house the equipment,” she said. “The food hub takes all of that away and takes down barriers and provides huge opportunities for food entrepreneurs to start up and scale up.”
With Food Hubs already in Vancouver and Surrey, and another about to open in Quesnel, Port Alberni will be home to the first food hub specializing in west coast seafood products.
The seafood hub will be an incubator for small scale harvesters including oyster farmers, seaweed growers, clam diggers and commercial fishers.
