Canadian seafood company Cooke is to close a facility in the US state of Massachusetts.

Cooke US subsidiary True North Seafood plans to shut a site in New Bedford by the end of May.

In a statement, True North Seafood said it will “move operations to its sister plant" at Wanchese Fish Company, which is based in Virginia.

"This decision will optimise the company’s capacity at the modern Wanchese Fish Company processing plant and cold storage facility, which will better serve its customers," the statement read.

Wanchese Fish Company processes scallops, shrimp, oysters, crab and fish species. From its plant in Suffolk, the business supplies customers in North America and Europe.

The New Bedford facility employs 58 staff and has contracts for the services of 36 contract workers.

Cooke, headquartered in New Brunswick in Canada, has manufacturing facilities in its domestic market, the US, South America, Europe and Australia.

The company declined to comment further on the reasons for the New Bedford closure when approached by Just Food.

Cooke attained the site when, through True North, it acquired Mariner Seafood in 2020.

A year ago, Cooke snapped up US seafood business Slade Gorton. The company also announced two seafood acquisitions in August 2022, firstly with Belgian shrimp company Morubel and then eventually struck a deal with Tassal.