Cascadia Attends the BC Seafood Expo

Bill Collins and Mike Williamson, along with Steve Cross attended the celebration of everything seafood in Courtney. The BC Seafood Festival and BC Seafood Expo are annual events that bring BC Seafood to the world. This year was a well-attended event with participation by global buyers, BC seafood producers, government’s and, let’s not forget foodies. Cascadia was there to meet the best in BC Seafood.

Cascadia, as the new kid on the block, was there to listen and learn. There were numerous session design to inform the attendees on the latest news and market trends in the seafood business world.

We met colleagues like

and

.  There were also officials from the Province of BC and the Government of Canada. Of particular interest was a well-organized B2B session where buyers from some of Asia’s biggest stores were out looking for BC products. We had the opportunity to meet with folks representing Elbon F&B and SSG.com. Both were visiting from South Korea and were eager to learn of BC Seaweed.

The highlight of the event was a workshop on the commercialization of seaweed. This, most excellent, session was organized by the Province of BC through the Ministry of Agriculture. The host, Myron Roth, introduced the session by remarking on the strong attendance by ocean entrepreneurs seeking to take advantage of the natural bounty that the coast of BC has to offer. The session included a talk by Dr. Louis Druehl on how to grow seaweed on Canada’s West Coast. There were also representatives from the seaweed Industry in both Canada and the United States.

Of course the expo would not be complete without the opportunity to taste BC seafood prepared with delight by the BC Culinary Team who married excellent products with a mastery of preparation resulting in wonderful tastes.

Cascadia Seaweed also took advantage of the location to meet with our friends of the

LP of Port Alberni. We first met this group during a short-course in seaweed cultivation offered by Dr. Louis Druehl at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre. Their is an alignment between Cascadia and NSLP in wishing to create a vibrant coastal community across Vancouver Island.