Longshore Fisheries is a family-owned lobster fishery that employs most of the residents in Sonora, Nova Scotia — but it is just one of over 400 seafood processing companies in the Maritimes. The company experienced steady and gradual growth and over time expanded its building and added equipment, new products and services.
“The lobster industry is very competitive,” says Krysta Hanley, whose family set up the company in a shuttered clam plant. “We realized very quickly we need to have something that nobody else has.” The family-owned business realized it needed help to be innovative, so they approached the New Brunswick Community College’s applied research and innovation office looking for technical advice on how they could improve their product line.
Longshore Fisheries’ challenge first became an applied research assignment for culinary arts students doing an advanced food production course. As a lobster fishery, the company had plenty of lobster by-product and they believed that, with some innovative help, it could create value for the company. The culinary arts students investigated and tested value-added recipes to create new products for Longshore Fisheries using the lobster by-product. Then it was up to marketing students in business administration to develop marketing plans to set Longshore Fisheries’ new products apart.
The culinary arts students created eleven new products for Longshore Fisheries. The marketing students then developed and presented marketing plans based on the new value-added food products created by the culinary arts students. Now, the company has tangible new products they can bring to the marketplace and plans for how to do it, while the NBCC students have grown their skill sets through practical and applied learning with industry.
