The former Port Fish complex is another step closer to re-opening as a west coast food hub.
Yesterday, Island Coastal Economic Trust announced they would put $300,000 towards the project, in addition to the $750,000 from the province, and $500,000 from the Port Alberni Port Authority.
Port President and CEO Zoran Knezevic says they are expanding the original idea of a seafood hub, to be a sea-to-forest food hub.
“We have all the right ingredients in place,” he said. “We are at the head of a beautiful fiord where people move a lot of seafood through here without us processing it, and we have beautiful forests where there is an abundance of food growing too.”
Knezevic says the food hub will be a business incubator, with oyster, fish, seaweed and mushroom processors already committed.
He hopes the $1.5 million facility will be open by summer, and provide more than a dozen food processing jobs.
