Bay of Plenty's $194m seafood industry

Commercial fishing is worth $194m to the Bay of Plenty, a new report has found. Photo/file

A report into the economic contribution of commercial fishing to New Zealand has shown processing alone is worth $194 million to the Bay of Plenty region.

Nationally, the seafood industry has a total value of $4.18 billion.

Chief executive of Fisheries Inshore New Zealand, Dr Jeremy Helson, said the report confirmed the importance of commercial fishing to New Zealand.

"The Ministry for Primary Industries says exports alone are expected to reach $2.3 billion by 2025. Add the contribution to the domestic market through jobs, investment in infrastructure and the sectors supporting the industry and you have a significant contributor to the New Zealand economy," said Helson.

The report, which measured a five-year average, showed 13,468 people were directly employed in fishing and seafood processing alone, which is 0.7 per cent of all New Zealand employment.

Seafood is New Zealand's fifth largest export commodity by value and represents 3.2 percent of total exports.

The report includes fishing and seafood harvesting but excludes aquaculture, which has revenues of another $500 million.

"In the inshore fishery, snapper is the top commercial catch, and rock lobster and paua the highest value shellfish species," said Helson.

The largest deep water commercial catch was of hoki and this species alone accounts for 38 percent of the deep water fisheries value.

The seafood processing industry (excluding aquaculture) is a significant contributor to the New Zealand economy and employed 9356 FTEs. Of those, 550 were employed in processing in Bay of Plenty and many more were employed on vessels catching seafood.

"It is about jobs - and particularly jobs in regional New Zealand. The better the industry does, the better off fishing communities are around the country," said Helson.

The report was derived from catch data supplied by the Ministry for Primary Industries.