Maine mussel farming pioneer closes its doors
USA: Once the country's largest mussel grower, Great Eastern Mussel Farm in Tenants Harbor, Maine, shut its doors permanently this week. Forty full-time employees lost their jobs. The company had been in business for about thirty years and was one of the mussel farming pioneers.
The decision to close was driven by several years of increased regulatory demands and competition from Canadian mussel growers, as well as rising energy costs.
General Manager Michael Hallundbaek told "The Soup" on line that the company "took the mussel from an obscure item used in some ethnic cuisine to a mainstream item".
In the early days it was a major challenge to get mussels into supermarkets and restaurants both locally and across the country. Hallundbaek said that the first job was changing the presentation. He recalled that in the old days, when people bought mussels, they came in a clump along with the mud, rocks and dirt they had been clinging to.
According to the article, Great Eastern Mussel Farm filed a petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce in March 2001 complaining about unfair marketing strategies by Canadian mussel exporters. The company, which at that time was the US' largest mussel farm, claimed to have evidence that mussel growers in Prince Edward Island were selling their product in the United States at prices below the Canadian market. Great Eastern said at that time that the "mussel dumping" was causing its sales to "flat line."
The company has also fought natural challenges. It has been subject to red tide and flood closures. Maine's Marine Resources Department shuts down shellfish harvesting throughout the state if there is too much rain causing runoff from septic systems, sewer systems and animal waste. This is to prevent that unwanted runoff be absorbed into the filter-feeding mussels and other shellfish.
