The fire, the cause of which has not been disclosed, was a blow to omega=3 oil supplier Ocean Nutrition, which only acquired the Arcadia plant six months previously in order to supply customers south of the Canadian border. The company's facility in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was designated for the Canadian, European and Asian markets.
At the time, the company played down the impact of the fire, reassuring customers that they would not experience any supply interruption since the Nova Scotia plant had the capacity to make up for any short fall.
Since the spray drier portion of the facility was destroyed, it also contracted out the spray drying portion of the microencapsulation process to SunOpta.
The decision to expand at Dartmouth is an indication of increasing demand from overseas; the company was known to have these plans in the background last year.
A number of co-branding agreement have been struck for a variety of different food products with companies around the world, the most recent of which was for the use of the company's branded ingredient Meg-3 in the crusts of pizzas by AC LaRocco.
Demand is also likely to increase on the home front, since Health Canada recently approved the use of Meg-3 in almost all food types at a dose of 100mg per serving - double the previous dosage.