AmeriPure Processing Co. of Franklin, La., which was forced to shut down in June after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, on Wednesday announced that it has resumed its oyster-processing operations.
AmeriPure managing partner Patrik Fahey said increased supplies of oysters allowed the company to reopen.
“We waited until the Texas public reefs opened up because what we’ve seen from Louisiana is not a particularly high quality oyster right now,” said Fahey.
AmeriPure had been one of America’s largest suppliers of half-shell Gulf oysters and is now working to reestablish relationships with old customers. All but three of the company’s 49 workers have returned to their jobs.
Although the reopening is off to a slow start, Fahey is optimistic about the future.
“It’s a slow start-up when you’ve been gone that long, out of sight out of mind. We didn’t expect to start out, in terms of sales volume, [where] we were at back in June,” said Fahey. “We’re getting largely a pretty good response from our old customers, and they’re phasing us in as time goes on. I think it will get better in the next couple of weeks. We’ll do what we have to do to get back on the map.”
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