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October 15, 2012

New CEI study seeks regional reach for Maine seafood

Coastal Enterprises Inc. and a Connecticut-based nonprofit will launch a two-year study to identify the best ways to integrate Maine seafood into the northeast regional food hub system and make it more widely available to consumers.

In an announcement Saturday, Wiscasset-based CEI said it met in Portland with staff from Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit focused on linking local food producers to under-served communities.

The two groups have worked for the past year on plans to use $3 million from the U.S. Treasury's Health Food Finance Initiative to create local "food hubs," an idea that CEI's president, Ron Phillips, said has primarily focused on agricultural products and not seafood.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a "food hub" as a centrally located facility that facilitates aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and marketing of food products produced locally or regionally, according to the announcement.

Daniel Ross, CFO of Wholesome Wave, said in the release that expansion of Maine seafood to such hubs "will generate economic development and healthy food systems not just for the Maine seacoast but also for business throughout the region."

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