South Carolina, U.S.A.-based Lowcountry Oyster Company – the state’s largest oyster farm – has broken ground on a new USD 6.4 million (EUR 5.9 million) expansion project.
The company was founded by Trey McMillan in 2017 in the ACE basin of South Carolina, which is positioned around the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers. McMillan, who is also the vice president of the South Carolina Shellfish Growers Association and South Carolina’s state representative for the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, founded the company after a trip to an oyster farm in nearby Chesapeake Bay.
Since its founding, the company has grown rapidly and now harvests millions of oyster each year.
"We are so proud of what we've accomplished over the past seven years in just 16 acres of water here in the ACE Basin," McMillan said in a release.
With the rapid expansion, the company was in need of a new processing and cross-dock facility. The company recently broke ground on that facility – which will expand the company’s production by 300 percent and bring at least 30 new jobs to the region.
The new facility will have a chilled water storage system and a climate-controlled processing and holding area containing 10,000 square feet of refrigerated space, which Lowcountry said is the first of its kind in the state.
“The new machines will allow LowCo. to go from processing 5,000 oysters to 20,000 oysters an hour,” Lowcountry said.
McMillan said the new facility will enable the company to increase its production and sales to expand its distribution nationwide. The increased capacity will also help Lowcountry reach new markets and hopefully draw other seafood producers and buyers and the interest of wholesalers and trucking lines, the company said.
"Our goal from the start has always been to feed as many people as possible on the smallest footprint possible, and this expansion will allow us to reach more oyster lovers than ever before in the Southeast and beyond,” McMillan said.
