Port of Eastport earns rare livestock license
The port of Eastport is now the only port in New England licensed to export livestock, a move Maine agriculture officials say could help the state's farmers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Thursday approved a temporary license after an expedited inspection process in order to ship 500 cattle from the Northeast and Wisconsin to Turkey, according to reports from the Bangor Daily News and the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The country is interested in buying about 8,000 dairy cows from the United States, but requires that any cattle be shipped from a state free of a disease called blue tongue. Maine is free of the disease, and now one of only a handful of states on the East Coast licensed to ship livestock.
Port and state officials are hopeful the new designation will make Maine a hub for livestock transportation. "To have a licensed port in Maine at Eastport can only help Maine farmers," Ned Porter, deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, told the Bangor Daily News. The state will work to get a permanent permit for the port, according to the paper.
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