Dock+ officially opened

Port Alberni’s new seafood processing centre officially opened on Friday with some fanfare.

Called ‘Dock+’, the facility is already home to a smokery, oyster, fish and seaweed processing plants.

It’s part of a provincial initiative to develop food hubs, where small-scale producers can afford federally-certified production space

BC’s Agriculture, food and fisheries Minister Lana Popham said there are 13 food hubs around the province, and each of them is unique but similar.

“It’s the same at every hub for me, it’s the excitement and the entrepreneurship and the partnerships that are happening,” she said. “These are really community gathering spaces and given what we’ve gone through over the last 18 months, seeing people with a lot of hope and excitement in their eyes, we haven’t seen that for a while, and that’s what I see at every food hub I go to.”

BC, the city, and Port Alberni Port Authority invested almost $2 million to refurbish and equip the former Port Fish facility.