BUCKSPORT, Maine - Just over a week after Verso Paper announced it was closing it's mill in Bucksport, the mid-coast town got a bit of good economic news today. Central Maine Cold Storage cut the ribbon on its brand new, 15,000-square-foot warehouse, where commercial customers will be able to freeze and store lobster and other seafood.
Other companies in Maine freeze and store their own branded seafood products. But Central Maine Cold Storage will be the only one to offer a custom, on-demand freezing and storage service to outside clients.
Brian McCarthy is the company's CEO. "What you're looking at is an IQF for freezing seafood - IQF stands for Individually Quick Frozen."
Seafood comes into the warehouse and is loaded onto a conveyor belt, which carries it into a big white machine. McCarthy calls it the tunnel. "Inside that tunnel is negative 30 degrees, with 50 to 60 mile an hour winds. So, as you can imagine, things freeze quickly."
McCarthy says the machine can quick freeze 2,000 pounds of lobster an hour.
"But we're also hoping to put through scallops, shrimp, fish, any other type of seafood. We're gonna hopefully do CO-OP-type days, where we have smaller fishermen, have less amounts, get together and be able to process - do it together," he says. "Because for us to turn on the tunnel, we need 8,000 to 10,000 pounds minimum. And some guys can bring in three or four. Well, if we can, together with two or three other guys, we can make that happen."
A storage freezer on-site can hold up to two million pounds of product a a time. Maine Gov. Paul LePage, on hand for a ribbon-cutting at the facility, says the company will help in the state's overall effort to more effectively brand Maine lobster.
"So now that we can hold 'em here, store 'em here, we can do a lot better," LePage said. "And we don't have to send 'em to Canada and have them come back with a Canadian package on them."
Right now, 60 to 70 percent of all seafood in Maine is processed and frozen in Canadian plants.