The Oregon Ocean Cluster
Keep more local seafood local.
Oregon’s seafood often goes directly from harvest to plane, bypassing Oregon communities. Keeping more local seafood local enhances the environment, economic development, public health, and human rights.
The Oregon Ocean Cluster is working to shift this dynamic and make local seafood easier to find and buy through development of wholesale buyers clubs, cooperative marketing, and shared infrastructure. Join us on this mission!
Oregon ocean Cluster Strategic InitIatives
2025 - 2030
IncreaSing Availability & Value
The need for processing and storage for ocean- based businesses is often an immediate barrier to growth, expansion, and serving the local coastal community.
OOC is leveraging our diverse network of partners to identify and deploy shared infrastructure that will address this bottleneck.
Multiple businesses are working to build their own, siloed marketing and distribution systems to move local ocean based products.
Shared marketing and distribution represents and opportunity to create economies of scale. OOC continues to convene the critical players to refine a shared distribution pilot program.
Within our ocean-based food system, there is tremendous waste. This presents an immense opportunity for new products.
Modeling off of the Iceland Ocean Cluster Initiative, we are identifying new product opportunities that can be scaled to generate wealth and jobs locally.
Strengthening Capacity
No one can go it alone. Launching or expanding businesses requires a variety of skills, resources, training, and expertise.
Through resource navigation, we are connecting businesses with the expert support they need. OOC will expand and institutionalize this process to enable greater impact.
Over time, ocean based careers such as fish processing have lost their market appeal as long-term careers.
We are expanding our youth training and creating a pilot workforce development program that will train the next generation of ocean-based workers and entrepreneurs.
Our regional innovation and collaboration is not possible unless we have the capacity and resources to execute our goals.
OOC will continue to coordinate funding and financing efforts, centering community needs and constraints to grow our regional impact.
background
90% of the seafood sold and consumed on the Oregon coast is imported from distant domestic and foreign markets while most Oregon-caught seafood is immediately exported.
Oregon fishers, processors, and distributors need resources and partnerships to secure effective and reliable purchasing. The Oregon Ocean Cluster aims to help make these resources more readily available across the Oregon coast.