P.E.I. seafood plant to launch specialty products

By Jim Brown

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Big changes are on the way for Summerside Seafood Supreme.

In a phone interview from Montreal, the seafood processor’s owner, Gabriel Elbaz, says new technology and a new management team are being brought in to help the Queens Wharf company launch more value-added products, targeted at specialty markets.

“We are going to be implementing a new generation of products,” said Elbaz, from his Sogelco International office, in Montreal.

“We will be the only producer of these types of products.”

There are 35 employees working at Summerside Seafood Supreme, creating lobsterine, crabterine, crabmeat, smelt, cooked lobster and other products for the Sogelco Inc. label. That number could more than double to 80 by the time all the changes are implemented.

Elbaz declined to give a timeline for the changes, except to say things are well underway.

The new production technology will also be “eco-friendly”, said Elbaz, who went on to say most of the new jobs will be high end, permanent jobs.

“There will be a lot of good things coming to P.E.I.,” he said.

(Jim Brown is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Journal Pioneer, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)