Wickliffe’s Two Rivers Fishery in Ballard County has shipped its first of many loads of Asian carp to China.
Plant manager Jeff Smith said the plant has a few orders in the United States and overseas, but he’s preparing for the processing plant’s largest order yet.
Customers in China have placed an order for a million pounds of the Asian carp. Smith said that order has a large impact on the new fishery.
“It will increase both to the employee and indirectly and directly impact the plant. That means more fishermen we have to hire because right now we want to get up to where we can ship two loads a week out, two containers a week.” --Jeff Smith
Smith said he even started hiring more plant workers immediately. He’s also planning on working with more fishermen. Currently, eight fishermen bring Asian carp to Two Rivers, but Smith hopes to soon start working with about a dozen fishermen.
Owner Angie Yu says the plant has been in operation for about a month and her employees process an average of 6,000 pounds of fish per day.