Grand Isle, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based oyster brand Grand Isle Jewels has landed a distribution deal with Tucker, Georgia, U.S.A.-based Inland Foods, a national supplier of specialty products.
Grand Isle Jewels, which is a partnership between the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO) and Grand Isle off-bottom oyster growers, started in April of this year.
“This unique, multifaceted brand campaign is building connections everywhere people are talking about oysters – from social media to seafood boards and kitchen tables,” JEDCO President and CEO Jerry Bologna said.
JEDCO spearheaded the project, which unites "small, off-bottom oyster brands under the Jewels umbrella” to reinvigorate the struggling Grand Isle oyster industry through “a marketing strategy similar to Tennessee whiskeys and New York strip steak.”
Inland Foods showed “immediate interest” in the new product, JEDCO said, and conducted market testing in the area, distributing about 10,000 Grand Isle Jewels products in the process. Based on the success of those tests, Inland is now expanding distribution across the Southeast U.S. and Texas.
JEDCO received support for its initial efforts to unite local growers under the Jewels brand from a Louisiana Economic Development grant and has more recently entered into a partnership with the Grand Isle Port Commission to build an oyster-processing plant on the island. That project has recently been awarded USD 250,000 (EUR 213,060) from the Jefferson Parish Council and the Louisiana Sea Grant.
The facility, which is due to be completed by January 2026, will allow Grand Isle Jewels growers to access a “central, secure location at the Grand Isle Port Commission commercial dock that will be accessible by boat from the aquafarms, staged with necessary equipment to sort, process, clean, and load oysters onto refrigerated trucks for distribution or return back by boat to the aquafarm for harvesting.”
“Together, with these hardworking farmers and grant-funded investments, we can restore Grand Isle’s reputation as a key exporter of premium oysters and boost Louisiana’s vital seafood industry, which has [an] annual economic impact of USD 2.4 billion [EUR 2.1 billion],” Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said.
Grand Isle Port Commission Executive Director and President of the Ports Association of Louisiana Weldon Danos said that the project represented the "opportunity to build a new, storm-resilient infrastructure with input from the Grand Isle Jewels farmers every step of the way.”
“The seafood industry makes up about 90 percent of activity at the Grand Isle Port, and that’s equally as important as grain, cargo, or energy activity at our ports across the state of Louisiana,” Danos said.
Louisiana Sea Grant has also provided USD 25,000 (EUR 21,306) to the Port for the expansion of Oyster Farm Two, which will double the leases and space for off-bottom farms in the area. Grand Isle Jewels said that all permits for the farm have been approved and there is a waiting list of interested farmers.
Grand Isle Jewels is named both in reference to the legacy of piracy in Grand Isle and Jules Melancon, an oyster farmer who brought off-bottom farming to the area in 2012, starting the revitalization of a 150 year-old industry that failed in the 1980s.
