PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2022

C O V E R S T O R Y - T U R N E R C E N T E R H O N O R E E

NEW EXPORTER OF THE YEAR East Peoria's Sorce Freshwater may have landed a whopper

BY MIKE BAILEY PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON AND MIKE BAILEY

I f Asian carp have a heaven, it’s the Illinois River. So many silver, grass, bighead and black carp want to make a life for themselves and their large families in the warm, shallow waters here, in fact, that they have been designated an invasive species. Aiming to put a dent in that population and derive a decent income doing it would seema no-brainer, then, for some aspiring entrepreneur.

As it turned out, those entrepreneurs were right here in Roy Sorce and his management team of Jared Vogel and Diana Spiewak, who as CEO, COO and CFO, respectively, have pursued their environmentally conscious ambitions to begin building a promising fish harvesting and processing operation. Their venture has grown so much, so quickly since launching in 2020 that Sorce Freshwater, a subsidiary of Sorce

Clint Carter and Dave Buchanan bring in a catch of Copi from the Illinois River

28 SEPTEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE