A joint venture between Scoular, Da Yang Seafood, and Bornstein Seafoods has opened a new fishmeal processing facility in Warrenton, Oregon, U.S.A.
According to Scoular, the new facility is the first of its kind to open in North America in “at least” 25 years. The USD 17.5 million (EUR 16.9 million) facility is located at the Port of Astoria’s Airport Industrial Park, and will upcycle fish trimmings from nearby fish-processing plants run by Da Yang and Bornstein into fishmeal and fish oil.
The facility is slated to begin operating in early 2023. The products from the new facility will be marketed under Scoular's Encompass brand. Scoular is an agricultural conglomerate and fishmeal and fish oil supplier headquartered in the U.S. state of Nebraska. The company cited the growing demand for fishmeal and fish oil from the aquaculture and pet food industries as a motivator behind its development of the new facility.
“Our new joint venture meets this demand through innovation and by bringing together two longtime local businesses with Scoular to create a sustainable protein ingredient for pet food and aquafeed,” Scoular CEO Paul Maass said.
Bellingham, Washington-based Bornstein Seafoods operates three seafood-processing facilities in Oregon, including one in Astoria. Da Yang Seafood also operates a seafood-processing plant in Astoria.
Bornstein Seafoods Vice President Andrew Bornstein said the new facility will help it become more sustainable by establishing a local destination for its byproducts, eliminating the need to ship them elsewhere.
“Bornstein Seafoods has long sought to utilize 100 percent of our seafood resources as locally as possible, and this new facility will allow us to do just that,” Bornstein said. “Partnering with Scoular and Da Yang Seafood to not only optimize our ocean resources, but also to reduce our need to ship these resources to distant markets is a big win for our local community. We are really excited to be partnering with these great companies on this project.”
Photo courtesy of Scoular
