Maine-based smoker Sullivan Harbor Farm cannot open as owners wait for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review amid partial shutdown of United States goverment.
To date, its been 13 days since a quarter of the US government shut down due to a funding row. Republicans and Democrats are battling it out over Donald Trump’s demands for USD 5 billion in funds for a 2,000-mile border wall between the US and Mexico.
Trump warned that parts of the government would could remain closed for “a long time” without a deal.
Bearing the brunt of shutdown is Sullivan Harbor Farm, an independant smoker who is currently limbo due to an FDA review that’s been put on hold due to the government shutdown, according to Newscentermaine.
Sullivan Harbor Farm in Hancock was expecting to re-open its smoked salmon facility before the start of 2019.
“We just want to open. We want to do what we know how to do. We’d like to see our equipment all up and running again,” Sullivan Harbor Farm owner Leslie Harlow told the publication.
Harlow was hoping to have the smoked salmon facility open its doors to customers after being closed under previous ownership in 2015. Harlow took over the facility in early 2016.
“Everybody is anxiously waiting for us to be back in business, and we can’t and it’s very difficult,” said Harlow.
“I don’t have any income,” said operations manager Deborah Sargent-Butterwick. “The people who we work with have been waiting, doing part time jobs here and there, hanging on, wanting to be open with a business that has such potential.”
The FDA inspected Sullivan Harbor Farm last month and collected samples for testing. The owner was thought that it would only take two weeks for results to released and for the shop to be re-opened.
“It’s just appalling that there’s so little regard from Washington right now on the importance the federal agencies have on many of our lives,” Harlow said.
Once the federal government shutdown has ended, it will likely take weeks before Sullivan Harbor Farms is fully operational, according to the publication.
