The Camden Conference, in partnership with Maine International Trade Center, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, and the University of Southern Maine, will present a panel discussion, “Maine’s Exporting Future Heats Up with Cold-Storage” on November 16 at 7pm. The panel is free and open to the public and may be attended in person or by Zoom.

Prospects for a major expansion of Maine’s role in the business of refrigerated cargo exports will improve dramatically with the anticipated 2024 completion of the Maine International Cold Storage Facility, now under construction on the Portland waterfront.

The anticipated benefits to Maine commerce of the 107,000 square foot, $55 million project will be discussed in depth by a panel at Hannaford Hall at the University of Southern Maine in Portland on Wednesday, November 16 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., presented by the Camden Conference, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to fostering informed discourse on global affairs.

The new facility is expected to meet the refrigerated cargo demand of Icelandic shipping company Eimskip and be large enough to accommodate customers from food, beverage, and bio-pharmaceutical industries in Maine, New England, and beyond. The Hannaford Hall panel will include Wade Merritt, president of Maine International Trade Center; Matthew Burns, executive director of Maine Port Authority; and Peter Rahn, Director of Quality and Food Innovation at Atlantic Sea Farms, the leading seaweed aquaculture company in the United States. The discussion will be moderated by Carol Coultas, business projects editor of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. The discussion will also cover the general outlook for Maine exports and improvements to Maine seaports.

The Hannaford Hall event is held in anticipation of the 2023 Camden Conference, Global Trade and Politics:  Managing Turbulence, to be held live the weekend of  February 17 – 19, 2023 at the Camden Opera House and live-streamed to venues in Portland, Rockland and Belfast.  See camdenconference.org for more information.