Founder of American Unagi LLC grew business at Darling Marine Center, BDN reports
The Bangor Daily News reported Sara Rademaker, the founder of elver-growing startup company American Unagi LLC, grew her business at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole before taking the next step. The company buys elvers, or young eels, from local harvesters and grows them to market size using land-based aquaculture practices. Rademaker started the business in her basement before moving it to the DMC, where she could demonstrate the commercial viability of the product before scaling up operations, the BDN reported. “I grew eels at a small-scale commercial density, demonstrating the product could work in the U.S.,” said Rademaker, who is in the process of expanding her business to a new facility in Waldoboro.