While most Connecticut residents see the state’s miles of shoreline as a pleasant place to spend a summer afternoon, Jim Markow sees a vast business opportunity lurking just beneath the sand.
Markow is an oyster farmer who harvests 20 million seeds a year for local growers and markets across the region. But he wonders what the market would be like if people in the nation’s heartland knew what he does about the benefits of sustainable shellfish.
That’s why he and the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative pushed Connecticut’s congressional delegation to sponsor a bill that would put the state’s shellfish industry on equal footing with other food producers in seeking federal money for marketing specialty crops.
The Shellfish Marketing Assistance Fairness Act, introduced last month by U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Vernon), a member of the agriculture committee, would allow aqua farmers in Connecticut to apply for grants that help promote their products.
A 2004 farming bill that authorized $54 million in funding over five years to producers of specialty crops excluded farmed shellfish growers from the list, making them ineligible for the federal marketing help.
The new marketing bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, would add the shellfish farmers to the list so they can compete with growers of fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, honey, maple syrup, dried fruits and nursery crops.
“Most people don’t associate Connecticut with oysters,” said Markow, a member of the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative, a 10-member group backing the proposed marketing bill. “We grow a great crop that is sustainable and healthy. We want people to know that and recognize our aquaculture products.”
Markow, a Connecticut shellfish farmer since 1989, believes the marketing bill will pay off for farmers down the road.
“We’ll eventually feel the impact of it, if it passes. But we’re not going to notice anything big from it at first,” said Markow. “The bill just gives us a fair chance to compete for the same money specialty crop growers have access to.”
Bob Rheault, executive director for the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, agrees.
“It’s not a lot of money, but we’ll take anything we can,” said Rheault. “Any money we spend on the shellfish industry is going to benefit the farmers. Hopefully they will see their businesses grow from it.”
Although there are no plans yet for how the money would be used, Rheault said it could go toward increasing awareness at festivals and other public events. He said it could also help pay for public outreach efforts like brochures, fliers and recipes, food tastings and industry research.
Rheault said the marketing bill would be particularly helpful to the 1,000 farms along the East Coast with fewer than 10 employees.
In Connecticut, an estimated 45 businesses farm shellfish on 22,000 acres of leased state land and another 67,000 acres on privately owned property.
There are no figures available on exactly how many oysters are harvested in the state because farmers stopped reporting that information to the state several years ago when lawmakers proposed taxing the harvest, said Rheault.
Groups like the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, Connecticut Seafood Council and University of Connecticut Sea Grant, which support the proposed bill, would be able to apply for the grants that could be used toward marketing and promoting the local oyster industry and shellfish farmers.
Oyster farming generates more than $15 million in sales annually and provides more than 300 jobs in the aquaculture industry.
“The marketing bill Joe Courtney introduced would help the seafood industry reach out to more people and provide us the opportunity to talk about what we do,” said Stephen Plant, owner of Connecticut Cultured Oysters.
“We don’t have trouble selling to stores and restaurants,” said Plant. “The grant money could really help us educate customers about the benefits of eating shellfish and the positive impacts it has on the environment.”
“People don’t eat shellfish at home because they don’t know how to prepare it,” said Plant.
Oysters are the largest seafood product in Connecticut, the leading state in the northeast for all aquaculture, according to Plant. A single adult oyster filters as much as 30 gallons of water per day, which reduces the algae population.
Connecticut has received about $1.2 million through the marketing program since 2006, and expects to receive another $400,000 this year, according to Connecticut Department of Agriculture Commissioner Steven Reviczky.
Grants of $75,000 per project are available on a competitive basis, said Jaime Smith, marketing director at the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. She said the goal is to promote the industry rather than individual farmers by gearing the funds toward groups, associations and cooperatives.
