Initiative to boost aquaculture

Trevor Mallard

A new gameplan for aquaculture is being promoted by the Government as a billion-dollar sea change for the industry.

Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard today told the nation's fish farmers that instead of trying to boost income by expanding the size of their operation, they needed to learn to generate more value from each kilogram of fish.

"A key challenge in recognising the potential of aquaculture is the need for the sector to move further up the value chain, based on increases in productivity," he said.

The average value of New Zealand's aquaculture harvest is $3/kg, compared to a value of $20/kg in Australia, where there is a greater focus on high-value finfish, such as kingfish, in addition to shellfish.

The strategy launched today by Mr Mallard and Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton calls for a $1 billion dollar industry by 2025. At present, it earns $333 million from products including greenshell mussels, ($209 million), pacific oysters ($28 million) and king salmon ($88 million).

"In twenty years time the future of New Zealand's aquaculture industry will look very different," Mr Mallard said in notes for his speech to the industry's annual conference in Nelson.

"Rather than undertaking business-as-usual activities on a greater scale, the growth of the industry will come through better use of existing space, the development and substitution of new, high value species, the development of new technologies and processes, the development of new value-added products and the diversification into new markets."

Mr Anderton said aquaculture was a key industry and a government response to the strategy was expected by the end of the year.

The strategy was developed by the New Zealand Aquaculture Council, with assistance from the Seafood Industry Council and the Ministry of Economic Development, including a Government grant of $112,500 help fund its development.

It outlines a 10-point plan on how to meet the $1 billion sales target, including establishing a new national organisation, NZ Aquaculture Ltd.

Mr Anderton said the Government was working to build a strong relationship with the sector, to incorporate sustainable aquaculture in its own agenda, and was developing national guidelines for sustainable aquaculture.

The Government announced a moratorium on new marine farm consents at the end of 2001, when fears grew that existing law and planning mechanisms were not coping with a "goldrush" of applications, particularly in the Marlborough Sounds.

Then Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson said the regulatory framework for marine farms was out-dated, complicated and dysfunctional. His moratorium followed a call by environmental lobbyists for a boycott of greenshell mussels in response to the race for space.

Then aquaculture was caught up in the political row over the foreshore and seabed issue -- which also sidelined the government's Oceans Policy -- and Mr Hodgson extended the moratorium to December 2004. Marine farmers frustrated by the extension claimed their dollar industry was being stifled.

By December 2004, the Government passed the Aquaculture Reform Act, which allocated to Maori 20 per cent of marine farming allocated since 1992 and 20 per cent of any new space. Maori sources said 20 per cent of marine farming space allocated since 1992 was worth about $50 million.

The mussel industry complained the Act constrained the siting of new mussel farms almost as much as if they were proposals for dumping radioactive nuclear waste.

By February of this year, the chief executive of the Fisheries Ministry John Glaister admitted there had been no aquaculture management areas (AMAs) -- designated coastal sites that will allow marine farms within their confines -- set up.

Today, Mr Anderton said the Government was looking at whether to incorporate sustainable aquaculture development in its Coastal Policy Statement. This would be in line with the draft Oceans Policy which canvassed regulation of environmental effects in coastal waters of both land-based activities -- such as farm run-off -- and things such as marine farms.

Included in the 10-point plan are steps to make investment more secure through renewal of existing consents, creation of AMAs, and proposals to allow resource consents to be used as collateral for borrowing money from investors.

A public relations strategy is also listed, to "connect" with the public. At an earlier seafood conference, the industry was told by Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation manager Patrick Hone that environmental activism was a huge challenge: "At some point in the next 10 years, fishermen will need to get the non-active community on side or face political extinction."

The strategy for marketing will include developing a quality mark based on product certification, and separate work on environmental sustainability will develop codes of practice for biosecurity and stewardship of coastal waters.

A research strategy aimed at improving innovation will include moves to address intellectual property issues. One large-scale marine farmer in the Marlborough Sounds is reported to have threatened to introduce New Zealand's native green-lipped mussels into Chilean waters, a move which some critics have said would be a form of "bio-piracy".

- NZPA