Government of Canada and Province of New Brunswick help McGraw Seafood attain the highest  global standard for food safety

March 17, 2022

Tracadie, New Brunswick - With the longest coastline in the world, Canada’s coastal communities rely on the fish and seafood industry as an integral contributor to local and regional economies. This is why the Government of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick today announced funding support to McGraw Seafood through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund (AFF).

The funding—a total contribution of over $1 million—will help the Elsipogtog First Nation-owned seafood processing facility add the equipment required to achieve the highest level of certification from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and improve productivity.

In 2021, McGraw Seafood completed a major expansion and modernization of its processing facility which  allowed the company to obtain an intermediate BRC certification supported by $3.5 million in previous investment from the AFF. The purpose of this new project is twofold: firstly, it will bring the last incremental investments required to help attain full BRC certification and secondly, it will add productivity enhancement equipment to improve areas where significant human efforts are still required to handle raw or finished products. These investments support more than 200 workers and 150 Indigenous fish harvesters who sell their catch to the plant.

The contribution is from the $400 million Atlantic Fisheries Fund (AFF), funded by the federal and provincial governments. The AFF focuses on increasing opportunities and market value for sustainably sourced, high-quality fish and seafood products from Atlantic Canada.

Introduced in 2017, the Atlantic Fisheries Fund will continue to invest in projects over its seven-year life. The commercial fisheries and aquaculture industry, Indigenous groups, universities and academia, and industry associations and organizations, including research institutions, may apply.

Eligible projects must focus on:

• Innovation – to support research and development of new innovations that contribute to sustainability of the fish and seafood sector, and to create partnerships and networks that aim to promote and encourage innovations in the sector;
• Infrastructure – to adopt or adapt new technologies, processes, or equipment to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the fish and seafood sector;
• Science Partnerships – fisheries and aquaculture industry based partnerships with academia and institutions to enhance knowledge and understanding of the impacts of changing oceanographic conditions and sustainable harvesting technology.