Souris Harbour cold storage expanding to meet growing demand

A harbour authority in eastern P.E.I. has expanded its cold storage facility with the help of a $500,000loan from ACOA.

The SourisHarbour Authority owns Eastern Cold Storage, where many local food producers store frozen products, such as berries, bait, and lobster.

The harbour authority added a new storage areawhich cost about $2.5 million,was finished in mid-August,and can hold more than 1.8 million kilograms of products.

Responding to demand

Denis Thibodeau, president and CEO ofthe SourisHarbour Authority, says the expansion was a response to local demand.

"Last year about this time, maybe a little bit later, we had to turn away customers, we had no more room," hesaid.

With space filling up, Thibodeau said some customers were forced to look elsewhere, "mainly on the mainland, between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and even as far away as Quebec and sometimes down in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard."

The additional storage space brings the totalcapacity up to more than fivemillion kilograms. Thibodeau said the newarea is already more than 60 per cent filled, and he expects it to be atcapacity by this winter.

'We can provide it'

MP Lawrence MacAulaysaid the expansion is important to the province'sfood industry. He said investments like this one will help P.E.I. compete in the global food market in years ahead.

"As an example, the population of China growing they want proper food, we can provide it. Our farmers and ranchers and fishers can provide this kind of product. And this [storage facility] is part of the requirement."

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