Akiwenzie's Fish

Fishing runs deep in Andrew’s genes. Like many Chippewas, he grew up fishing the remote and rural northern shores of Lake Huron. Before school every morning he would help his uncles fish. Some of that fish was occasionally sold, but much of it went to feed his extended family. Fishing also became critical for his mental health, a way to escape periodically the bitter realities of poverty.

Andrew’s first job as an adult was with Hydro One, one of Canada’s big electric companies. When he was laid off, he began exploring how to transform his lifelong passion for fishing into a successful venture.

For a time, he worked as a commercial fisherman. “But when we had the boys,” remembers Natasha, “we realized we couldn’t make ends meet. So, that’s how we began almost seven years ago.”

Andrew wanted to do better than the environmentally and economically unsound practices he saw being practiced by the big, commercial fishing operations at Cape Crocker and the Georgian Bay. Many of his competitors deployed huge nets that were overfishing local stocks, and then processed the catch in unsanitary conditions. They also sent large catches to the United States for processing and had the fish sent back over the border for sale.

When Akiwenzie’s opened in 2002, quality became its cornerstone. “We have two scrutinizers of the fish,” boasts Andrew. “Me and my wife. If it’s soft, it never gets past us. We’re not driven by the money like others—even if the fish are soft others keep pushing it, because they already paid for it and they need to get their money back.”

The earliest customers were local processors. But Andrew had trouble meeting their demands for large catches, delivered on clockwork schedules. So he and Natasha began processing smaller batches themselves, deboning the fish by hand to maintain its freshness. Fish not good enough to be filleted was smoked in Natasha’s unique blend of garlic, salt, and honey. The fillets and smoked fish were then sold directly at local farmers markets in Toronto.

Word about Akiwenzie’s fabulous fish soon got out. One person who noticed was Jamie Kennedy, one of Toronto’s celebrity chefs and a leader of the area’s Slow Food Convivium, who began using Akiwenzie’s fish and singing its praises. Since then, Slow Food Toronto has sent Andrew and Natasha in 2008 to the International Slow Food Salone in Italy.

Andrew now thinks it’s time to grow his business. “I love to fish, but I’m at the point now where I hope to make the jump from fisher to producer.” He would like to find an investor who can help them get bigger processing equipment, more storage space, a bigger boat, and a web-based ordering system. He’d also like to recruit another partner he could trust to maintain the same quality standards.