Rainforest Seafoods facility expected to open by September

The Rainforest Seafoods facility at Calliaqua is expected to be up and running by September.

During a site visit on Tuesday, Minister of Finance and area representative for East St George Camillo Gonsalves said the river defence work has been completed, with gabion baskets having been placed alongside the property to protect it from the river.

He said that a little more river work is needed, but the contractors have mapped out the footprint of the facility with part of the land left for use by the Coast Guard.

The building that will house the processing facility was manufactured in China and will be assembled here, so it is coming in parts, but its arrival has been delayed because of coronavirus issues in China.

“So what they’re doing now is building the pads and the columns on which the building will stand…, and then essentially the building is going to drop down on top of the columns,” Gonsalves explained.

The Finance Minister said there will be an official groundbreaking ceremony in March, while the building is expected to arrive in late April and completed in late August.

September is being targeted for the opening of the facility, which is being built to European Union (EU) standards, which will make Rainforest Seafoods the largest single Caribbean exporter in the world. The company is already the largest seafood exporter in the Caribbean with 30 markets including Japan and Greece.

The company is hoping to buy, on a large scale, live lobster, conch, sea cucumber and other fresh seafood with the hope of pumping around EC$20 million into the local fishing industry annually.