Ducktrap River of Maine on Tuesday announced plans for a major expansion that would increase the size of its seafood smoking and processing facility by nearly 50 percent, double the current processing capacity, and support the addition of 40 to 50 new jobs.
According to General Manager Don Cynewski, the expansion is necessary to keep up with sales, which he said have doubled over the last four years. Ducktrap's Norweigan parent company, Marine Harvest, is underwriting the estimated USD 4 million (EUR 3.1 million) addition to the Belfast plant — the international company’s only processing facility in the United States.
Cynewski said Ducktrap is currently working at full capacity with the smokers running 24-hours a day, six days a week. Atlantic and Sockeye salmon account for around 60-percent of the product coming out of the Belfast facility, but the plant also processes trout, mackerel, shellfish and several other seafood products. Cynewski said the primary goal of the expansion is to keep up with demand for the company's current products, as opposed to introducing new products.
