August 28, 1996
(Fisheries and Aquaculture)

Rose Blanche fish plant sold

Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister John Efford, announced today that the fish plant at Rose Blanche will re-open this fall under new management that will lead to a more diversified operation, particularly for underutilized species.

The government-owned fish plant at Rose Blanche has been sold to Snow Capped Fisheries Limited, a newly incorporated company that is a partnership of H.B. Dawe Limited of Cupids and the Montreal-based firm Ancoba Inc.

"With the combination of H.B. Dawe's more than 50 years experience in the Newfoundland fishery and Ancoba's expertise processing and marketing both traditional and non-traditional species, I am confident the plant will play a significant role in the economy of the Rose Blanche area," Mr. Efford said.

Fish processing licences attached to the plant when it closed three years ago will be available to the new company. These licences are for groundfish, lumpfish and squid. As well, Mr. Efford said, licences for any developing fisheries will be considered "where opportunities are identified," such as for monkfish and Atlantic king crab.

With the existing licences, up to 150 employees could be employed at the plant.

The new owner hopes to have the plant operating this fall. In addition to processing locally available underutilized and traditional species, the company plans to import foreign sourced raw material such as Barents Sea cod.

The plant at Rose Blanche was expropriated by the province in 1988 from Eldorado Seafoods Limited, and was leased to Conpak Seafoods until December 1993. Despite considerable effort by government to find a new operator, there was very little interest shown by the private sector, both locally and internationally, until Snow Capped Fisheries submitted a proposal.

Contact: Josephine Cheeseman, Director of Communications, (709) 729-3733.