Silver Bay selling shares in new Bristol Bay plant

Sitka-based Silver Bay Seafoods has acquired property in Bristol Bay for a new processing operation there. The company plans to sell shares in the operation to raise the USD 25 million (EUR 18.8 million) needed for construction. Beginning in 2014, Silver Bay hopes to process large portions of the Bristol Bay driftnet salmon fishery, and the Togiak sac-roe herring fishery.

The first announcement that Silver Bay Seafood’s was planning to open a processing facility in Bristol Bay came in late November on the Deckboss blog run by veteran Alaska journalist Wesley Loy. The company has purchased 8-acres of industrial zoned property on the Naknek River adjacent to the Leader Creek Seafood’s facility, and plans to construct a high-volume processing plant on that land that will have the daily capacity to process and freeze 2.4 million pounds of salmon and 900 tons of herring.

To pay for construction of the plant Silver Bay Seafoods is offering to sell ownership interest for USD 25,000 (EUR 18,833) for each one-tenth of one percent of the new company called “Silver Bay Seafood’s-Naknek LLC.”

The news that a new seafood processor is coming to the Bay has been met with enthusiasm by many stakeholders in the Bay’s commercial salmon fishery including the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, which is the Community Development Quota organization for Bristol Bay.

Robin Samuelsen is a commercial fishermen and the CEO of the corporation.

“The processing capacity of Bristol Bay is way down from 10-20 years ago. It’s good to see a fresh company like Silver Bay come in to process salmon and pay fishermen a fair price. We own 50-percent of Ocean Beauty, which has a plant in Naknek. I have joy that Silver Bay is coming in to compete with us. The fishermen are going to benefit.”

Click here to read the full story from KCAW radio >

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