September 1, 2022 — The following was released by Local Catch Network:
Small and mid-size seafood businesses across the United
States are invited to apply for the second cohort of Scale Your Local Catch (SYLC), a five-month
virtual business accelerator program designed to train seafood producers on marketing their
catch directly to consumers, scaling their business, and building greater resiliency within local
and regional food systems. Applications are open online through October 14th, for the
program beginning in early December 2022 and concluding in April 2023.
SYLC is produced by Local Catch Network, based at the University of Maine, and is offered at no
cost through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s AMS Farmers Market Promotion
Program (FMPP). SYLC is developed in partnership with Ecotrust with the goal of strengthening
local and regional seafood systems by addressing challenges associated with direct marketing
and by building the knowledge, skills, and networks needed for values-based seafood businesses
to scale up their operations and increase their capacity and viability for long-term resilience.
“As we enter the second year of SYLC programming, we look forward to facilitating
conversations and connections between values-based seafood producers and technical
assistance providers. Creating space for knowledge-sharing and relationship-building has
proven to be essential to strengthening local and regional seafood systems,” said Jordan
Richardson, Coordinator of the Local Catch Network.
“The accounting sessions spurred us to re-organize and set up new categories in our accounting
and bookkeeping systems. With the help of the labor and employment session, we reclassified
our workers, and the marketing sessions motivated us to transition e-commerce platforms, set up
our social media stores, ramp up our analytics tracking, evaluate our branding, and more!”- Scale
Your Local Catch 2021 Cohort Member.
Although the core curriculum of the program includes topics like business structure formation,
taxation, accounting, credit/finance, and market development, a large focus of SYLC is
expanding support and social networks within the cohort. Participants will receive customized
business support from service providers and consultants who understand the unique needs of
fishers and seafood harvesters who want to build financial viability, strengthen their business
structure, and grow with integrity.
Applicants should meet all selection criteria (linked here.)
Preference will be given to fishers and harvesters who:
– Are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or identify as a person of color
– Are Women
– Live in/serve low income/low access areas
– Produce a value-added product from a raw commodity they are fishing, raising,
or harvesting
Interested applicants can register here to attend an information session on September 14th
from 4-5PM ET. For full program information and to apply, visit https://localcatch.org/scale
your-local-catch/ or contact Jordan Richardson (Jordan.Richardson@maine.edu) and Tyson
Rasor (trasor@ecotrust.org) with any questions.