MACHIASPORT – Maine’s largest salmon farmer is taking aim at a virtually untapped market.

Sometime early in the new year, Maine grocery stores will begin carrying fresh, marinated salmon fillets from the ocean pens of Atlantic Salmon of Maine in Washington and Hancock counties.

Marketed under the Ducktrap River Fish Farm label, the ready-to-cook portions are vacuum-infused with herbs and spices and can go from package to dinner plate in 10 minutes.

“Many consumers are afraid to buy fish because they don’t know what to do with it when they get it home,” said Dave Peterson, chief executive officer for Atlantic Salmon of Maine. “We recognized the need to develop a value-added product that was more market-friendly.”

Peterson said the company began marketing the new Fresh Cure fillets in Bread and Circus natural foods stores in Massachusetts earlier this year and he expects it will be available in Maine supermarkets within the next three months.

A tray of two vacuum-marinated portions – weighing a total of 111/2 ounces – is selling for $8.99 to $11.99.

Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Ducktrap River Fish Farm are owned by Fjord Seafood of Norway. Fjord, like the other large Norwegian and Canadian companies that dominate Maine salmon aquaculture, is competing in the U.S. market with low-cost Chilean imports.

The competition has driven prices for whole salmon down to a current low of $1.50 to $2 a pound, a dramatic drop from the $4 a pound that Maine fish farmers anticipated when the salmon aquaculture industry began in Washington County more than a decade ago.

Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, said every salmon aquaculture company in Maine has a value-added product.

Belle said Maine fish farmers harvested 36 million pounds of salmon in 2000, and all companies are working to increase the percentage of their product that is sold as a prepared or semiprepared food.

Steve Young, vice president of sales for Fjord Seafood USA, said development of the company’s Fresh Cure line began more than a year ago before ContiSea LLC, the previous owner of Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Ducktrap, merged with Fjord Norway.

Young said the development strategy was based on studies indicating that the average consumer wants to get a meal on the table within 15 minutes and wants to be assured that the food is fresh.

The trepidation that many home cooks have about buying and cooking fish is reflected in figures for per capita consumption, he said.

Americans eat only 12 pounds of fish a year, compared with 93 pounds of chicken, Young said.

Chicken consumption is increasing steadily – partially as a result of brand-name marketing of ready-to-serve portions – but U.S. consumption of fish has grown by just half a pound a person in the past five years, he said.

To address consumer concerns with freshness, the Fresh Cure package is equipped with a small tab which contains an enzyme that turns the white center yellow when the fish is past peak freshness.

The color change is visible even to people who are colorblind, and the package is clearly marked with the message, “Do not use when dot is yellow.”

Peterson said the salmon fillets are packaged using a modified atmosphere process, which removes all the oxygen, replaces it with carbon dioxide and nitrogen and then seals the package.

“Bacteria grows in the presence of oxygen, but when you take the oxygen out, you have to replace it with a harmless gas,” he said.

Young said the modified atmosphere process extends the shelf life of the fresh salmon portions from 14 to 21 days, but the freshness tab is designed to turn color after 14 days.

“We weren’t so much interested in extending the shelf life as we were in assuring quality,” he said.

Young said he’s aware of only one other processor that uses modified atmosphere packaging for a retail product.

The vacuum-tumbling method the company developed to infuse the fillets with the marinade is also unique for a fish product, Peterson said.

The herbs and spices that make up each of the four marinades are a company secret and were developed by Steve Schimoler, the chef of The Grist Mill restaurant in Waterbury, Vt., he said

The Fresh Cure fillets come in four flavors – lemon and garlic, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Southwest.

Peterson said Schimoler tested the marinades with diners in his Vermont restaurant, and Fjord conducted an extensive taste-testing of the marinades at the Boston Seafood Show last March.

Mary Warner, sales manager of Atlantic Salmon of Maine, said the Fresh Cure fillets are also available to restaurants and food wholesalers in 8-ounce portions.

Fjord’s Majestic line of whole fish and fillets commands a better price than many of its competitors, but the company sees a large consumer market for its new convenience food, she said.

Peterson said the new line represents 5 percent of Atlantic Salmon of Maine’s current production, but he expects that will increase to 25 percent next year.

Within five years, Fjord expects to produce 4.5 million pounds of Fresh Cure a year – approximately 50 percent of its total salmon production, he said.

The company’s Machiasport processing plant employs 80 people full time when it is in full production, and Peterson said he expects the new line will require another five to 10 workers within the next five years.

Fresh Cure marinated salmon fillets are on restaurant menus in Massachusetts and Vermont, and Peterson said he expects they will become available in Maine restaurants once the company’s wholesale distributors begin marketing the new line.

Peterson said Fjord USA is putting its energy into expanding the market for the new line and doesn’t have other products in the pipeline just yet.

But any future products will follow Fresh Cure’s lead of offering both quality and convenience, he said.

Convenience is where the fish market is heading, according to Belle.

“The seafood market in general is competing in a world where people are pressed for time,” he said.