October 17, 2022

Cooke subsidiary launches premium salmon brand for US market

Cooke Aquaculture's True North Seafood has quietly launched a premium salmon brand that leans heavily on its origins in the US state of Maine.

The company's Cutler Cove Salmon is now available on a limited basis in fillets and portions through Baldor Specialty Food in US areas including New York City, Harbor Fish in Portland, Maine, and Taylor Lobster in Kittery, Maine, according to True North Vice president of marketing Jill Cronk.

"Cutler Cove Salmon is our premier salmon offering in the US market," Cronk told SeafoodSource. "We know from our market research that seafood consumers are interested in salmon that is Product of USA, raised without the use of antibiotics, fresh [and] never frozen, and [Best Aquaculture Practices] four-star certified.  Cooke Aquaculture USA is the only producer of ocean-raised, Atlantic salmon in the US market, so we were already well-positioned to produce salmon that meets all these criteria. Cutler Cove Salmon is raised and harvested in Maine, shipped in recyclable packaging and transported by truck. We created the Cutler Cove Salmon brand to help our customer base, from home cooks to chefs and upscale retailers, easily identify the salmon that has all these key features."

Cooke declined to provide the company's current production volumes for Cutler Cove Salmon, but Cronk said the company's goal is to grow the brand's footprint nationally.

"Expansion plans are currently regionally focused, with intentions to grow across the US," she said.

Baldor Specialty Foods director of merchandising Kevin Lindgren said his company, which serves approximately 5,000 restaurants in the US Northeast on a daily basis, has been carrying Cutler Cove Salmon since May 2022.

"Baldor has done business with Cooke, buying their smoked salmon, for at least the past 10 years, and [eventually] expanding to frozen salmon under the True North label," Lindgren said. "Our sales rep learned what we were looking for how we were trying to grow the category and gave us the opportunity with the Cutler Cove Salmon.

"We want to carry premium products, not the same commodities that everybody else has. And Cutler Cove Salmon checks every box for us."

- SeafoodSource