The commercial value of farmed Maine mollusks could quadruple over the next 15 years. That’s the conclusion of a market survey sponsored by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Last year, sales of Maine shellfish grown by aquaculture were worth around $6 million. The new report puts that in national perspective: Despite its dominance in the American market for wild-caught lobster, the state supplies only about 1 percent of the nation’s farmed shellfish.
It says that with some investment and marketing, sales of Maine-grown shellfish should reach $30 million.
“There’s a lot of hurdles, but they can be overcome,” says Jonathan Labaree, the institute’s chief community officer. “Maine has a great reputation for growing really high-quality shellfish, and that’s partly because our farmers do a really good job of husbanding their crops. But we also have this wonderful cold, clear, clean water that really produces a nice product. We think that Maine can maintain good markets and a premium for their product because of how good it is.”
Maine’s wild scallop catch has been on the rise over the last five years, but it’s oysters that are really leading the way in the potential for farmed shellfish. State data show that in 2011, roughly 600,000 pounds of oysters, mostly farmed, were brought in. By last year, that number had risen by almost a million pounds.
Labaree says there is growing interest in creating scallop and mussel farms as well.