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The rebuilt plant caught fire in 2013. (Photo: Aaron Gasser)
Pacific Seafood finishes rebuilding Warrenton plant, destroyed by fire
UNITED STATES
Thursday, August 16, 2018, 02:30 (GMT + 9)
Pacific Seafood has managed to finish the rebuilding phase of its its seafood-processing plant in Warrenton along the Skipanon River, which burnt down about five years ago.
The Warrenton plant, built in 1941 and acquired by Pacific Seafood in 1983, was almost all damaged in 2013, except for the ice house.
According to The Daily Astorian, after the fire, Pacific Seafood continued paying employees. Within a week, the company had subleased a former seaplane hangar at the North Tongue Point industrial docks used by Del Mar Seafoods for seasonal sardine processing.
The company will phase out operations there as it moves back to Warrenton in the coming months.
The new plant, at 78,000 square feet and a cost of more than USD 20 million, is built to process whiting, groundfish, steelhead and Dungeness crab, with plans to add shrimp processing in the coming years.
Seafood is offloaded from cranes along the banks of the Skipanon and flows inside the plant, where Pacific Seafood is installing 40 fillet stations, two skinning machines and a vacuum packer. Behind the processing areas are industrial blast freezers and cold storage that cool product to anywhere between 20 and minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit.
The firm’s CEO Frank Dulcich pointed out that the plant is expected to process up to 120,000 pounds of groundfish and 90,000 pounds of Dungeness crab per day, taking seafood from 70 boats, adding that it will employ up to 140 full-time and 100 seasonal workers.
The entire plant is temperature-controlled and the main processing floor is designed so no forklifts will ever have to go inside. In addition, the building’s wastewater treatment system will keep it ahead of the curve on permit requirements. New packaging and freezing technology will help expand the reach of the company’s products.
The plant is expected to start taking regular deliveries by October and be ready for Dungeness crab season in the winter.
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