SME Innovation | Chasse-Marée: redfish put in a box

Redfish fishing is slowly resuming in Quebec, after a moratorium of around thirty years. The Chasse-Marée cannery in Rimouski is launching spicy redfish fillets these days which will allow curious gourmands to discover this fish that has come from far away.

Who ?

If you like to eat well, you probably already know Chasse-Marée, this cannery which has put Quebec bourgot in a setting that had never been offered to it: a pretty preserve, which clearly appeals to gourmets who are not embarrassed to pay more for a local, quality product. Last year, in the second year of marketing for Chasse-Marée, approximately 25,000 boxes of bourgots were sold in Quebec. The mollusk is offered in three flavors.

Two entrepreneurs are behind Chasse-Marée: the oceanographer Guillaume Werstink and the fisherman Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay. They started this project in 2016, in a niche that was previously non-existent in Quebec: refined canning of seafood products, ideally those that have not yet been processed much otherwise. The cannery was nominated for the Lauriers de la gastronomy in the “Producers of the Year” category in 2023 and 2024.

The product

It is now the redfish which will be entitled to preferential treatment by Chasse-Marée, which presents this white fish in a very simple way, in fillets, with a spicy and spicy oil. The recipe is by Pierre-Olivier Ferry, chef of Métis-sur-Mer. The size of the fish (local version) is perfect for the Chasse-Marée format: a box will contain six to eight fillets, in sunflower oil. Pêcheries gaspésiennes, a company from Rivière-au-Renard, prepares the fillets for the cannery.

There will be other canned redfish, prepared differently, to have a diversified offering for the same species. Same marketing strategy as for the bourgots.

Challenges

The redfish is a little-known fish here since we had stopped fishing for it commercially. “We need to rebuild demand,” says Guillaume Werstink. And it won’t happen overnight. » The fish is already sold fresh, in fishmongers. It has white flesh and a delicate taste – some will say that it is a bit ordinary… Hence the interest in putting it in a can!

The Rimouski company now plans to obtain a federal marketing permit which would allow it to sell its seafood products outside of Quebec. The targeted markets are mainly Toronto and New York. “To stay with a product from the East Coast,” explains Guillaume Werstink.

The future

Chasse-Marée will further expand its range next fall with the launch of canned soups: lobster bisque, Stimpson surf clam chowder and fish soup with redfish. “Always with this idea of ​​promoting species that are a little more unknown,” says Guillaume Werstink, and of working with already used fish and seafood co-products. The soups should arrive in small grocery stores and other specialty stores that distribute canned goods just in time for chilly days.