Icewater Seafoods Inc. will be using funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) to upgrade cod processing technology to improve competitiveness and maintain work for approximately 200 full and part-time employees in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
Arnold’s Cove-based Icewater will receive a provisionally repayable investment of $2.625 million from ACOA’s Business Development Program (BDP).
Icewater worked with German-based Baadar Group to use its European system as a base for a custom, state-of-the-art integrated solution adapted to process cod. The upgrades are expected to increase the quality of cod processed at the plant with finer cuts and higher value yield. As a result, the company will operate a more efficient, sustainable, quality-oriented production facility.
“We compete with the best cod plants in Iceland and Norway so our customers demand a premium product from world-class operations. This new Baader filleting and skinning equipment is an important part of maintaining our reputation for delivering on those expectations. We have already seen an improvement in the texture and the new equipment allows us to fillet larger fish,” said Alberto Wareham, CEO, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
Icewater Seafoods Inc. is a local, family-owned company, which primarily exports its products to premium markets in Europe.
It is the only processor in North America dedicated full-time to Atlantic cod production. This investment enabled the company to adapt and install leading-edge groundfish technology to modernize its Arnold’s Cove plant, which was built in 1979.
