Maine, U.S.A.-based aquaculture company Cold Current Kelp has won the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development Value-Added Producer Grant of USD 24,700 (EUR 23,781), and one of the company’s funding partners, the Maine Technology Institute, has pledged to match the grant with another USD 25,000 (EUR 24,070). 

The funds will be invested in business development, marketing plans, and streamlining production, according to the firm.

“Maine’s long history of innovation on the sea is not a thing of the past. Companies like Cold Current Kelp demonstrate the potential for the Gulf of Maine to provide us with new, sustainable economic opportunities," USDA Rural Development Maine State Director Rhiannon Hampson said.

Cold Current Kelp uses its farmed kelp to create luxury skincare products. Its founders, Krista Rosen and Inga Potter, manage most aspects of the business themselves and said the grant will allow them to scale up by bringing Maine-based marketing and business professionals into the company's operations.

This will include collaborating with the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which will run a manufacturing feasibility study for the company, according to the firm.

Maine Aquaculture Association Executive Director Sebastian Belle said that Cold Current Kelp is a great example of where he hopes the aquaculture sector in the region will continue to move. 

“The development of innovative value-added products is critical to the continual growth of the aquaculture sector, and the USDA Rural Development programs are vital to those efforts,” he said. 

Cold Current Kelp has been the recipient of major grants in the past, including the Saltonstall-Kennedy grant from NOAA for farming red seaweed and the USDA Small Business Innovation Research grant. 

Source - https://www.seafoodsource.com