PORTLAND, Maine — June 17, 2014 — Famous for lobster, fresh fish, and an abundance of restaurants, the Portland area is hoping to use the designation — and the economic development grants that are expected to follow — to revive a food-processing industry fallen on hard times, expanding it to take advantage of a passionate local-food movement.
In the competition to gain designation as one of 12 federal manufacturing centers, most successful communities sought to boost heavy industries such as aerospace, automobiles, or technology equipment.
Greater Portland won with fermented beverages, doughnuts, and seafood.
Famous for lobster, fresh fish, and an abundance of restaurants, the Portland area is hoping to use the designation — and the economic development grants that are expected to follow — to revive a food-processing industry fallen on hard times, expanding it to take advantage of a passionate local-food movement.
The idea is to connect the region, the center of food processing in the state, to Maine’s farms, restaurants, and homegrown products such as potatoes, cheese, and blueberries.
In a state where manufacturing employment has fallen by more than half since 1979, and the rate of rural poverty is among the highest in the United States, there is hope that the federal manufacturing designation could help increase the number of city jobs as well as boost rural economies by replacing imported products with those grown, raised, or made in Maine.
Economic development specialists in Portland envision scaling up kitchen enterprises into food manufacturing operations, processing more lobsters in-state instead of shipping them to Canada, and increasing exports of Maine goods by 25 percent.
Read the full story from The Boston Globe