Souris Harbour cold storage expanding to meet growing demand
Sarah MacMillan | CBC News | Posted: September 22, 2017 2:00 PM | Last Updated: September 22, 2017
Expansion adds space for fruit, vegetable and seafood products
A harbour authority in eastern P.E.I. has expanded its cold storage facility with the help of a $500,000 loan from ACOA.
The Souris Harbour Authority owns Eastern Cold Storage, where many local food producers store frozen products, such as berries, bait, and lobster.
The harbour authority added a new storage area which cost about $2.5 million, was finished in mid-August, and can hold more than 1.8 million kilograms of products.
Responding to demand
Denis Thibodeau, president and CEO of the Souris Harbour Authority, says the expansion was a response to local demand.
"Last year about this time, maybe a little bit later, we had to turn away customers, we had no more room," he said.
With space filling up, Thibodeau said some customers were forced to look elsewhere, "mainly on the mainland, between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and even as far away as Quebec and sometimes down in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard."
The additional storage space brings the total capacity up to more than five million kilograms. Thibodeau said the new area is already more than 60 per cent filled, and he expects it to be at capacity by this winter.
'We can provide it'
MP Lawrence MacAulay said the expansion is important to the province's food industry. He said investments like this one will help P.E.I. compete in the global food market in years ahead.
"As an example, the population of China growing … they want proper food, we can provide it. Our farmers and ranchers and fishers can provide this kind of product. And this [storage facility] is part of the requirement."
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