Virginia Grants $247,000 to Amory Seafood for Expanded Blue Catfish Processing

The state of Virginia has awarded a $247,000 grant to Amory Seafood to increase its capacity for processing invasive blue catfish. The funding, part of the state’s effort to combat the environmental impact of this invasive species, will help Amory Seafood enhance its operations and expand its processing capabilities.

Virginia Grants $247,000 to Amory Seafood for Expanded Blue Catfish Processing. According to Amory Seafood CEO Meade Amory, the expansion will not only increase processing capacity but also improve the overall quality and marketability of their products. The upgrade will position the company to better support local watermen and contribute to efforts to reduce the population of invasive blue catfish, which has been negatively affecting the native species in the Chesapeake Bay.

Based in Hampton, Virginia, Amory Seafood has been in business for over a century but began processing blue catfish only a decade ago. The funding will allow the company to modernize its facility by installing a quick freezer and upgrading its packaging equipment, allowing it to purchase even more locally caught blue catfish. Virginia Grants $247,000 to Amory Seafood for Expanded Blue Catfish Processing, with Governor Glenn Youngkin highlighting that the expansion will offer more market opportunities for local watermen and provide a boost to Virginia’s seafood industry. In 2019, the economic impact of the state’s seafood industry was over $1.1 billion.

The Governor’s Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program, which was established last year, provides funding of up to $250,000 to improve the processing and freezing capacity of blue catfish. Virginia Grants $247,000 to Amory Seafood for Expanded Blue Catfish Processing through this program, which is part of a broader effort by both Virginia and Maryland to encourage local fishers to catch more blue catfish. This invasive species has been damaging the local ecosystem, particularly in Chesapeake Bay.

Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matt Lohr emphasized that this grant not only benefits Amory Seafood but also the local community in Hampton and Virginia’s watermen, many of whom are limited in their catches due to a lack of processing infrastructure. “This partnership will help improve the health of Virginia’s waterways by incentivizing the fishing of an invasive species,” Lohr said. This is the second grant issued by Governor Youngkin under the new program, with the first being awarded to Sea Farms, another Virginia-based seafood processor, earlier this year.