$20m factory to create 30 new jobs

A $20 million marine extract facility will bring 30 new jobs to Marlborough, as Seafood company Sanford expands its production of ‘‘nutraceuticals’’.

New Zealand’s largest seafood company Sanford said it hoped to start building at a site in Blenheim at Riverland’s in April next year, and be operational by 2021.

The facility, which will turn seafood such as mussels and fish, into dietary supplements and cosmetics, is part of the company’s goal to diversify.

Sanford general manager of innovation Andrew Stanley said the site would be a hub, with a research lab and factory, allowing it to take a concept from the lab, to a product on the shelf.

Stanley, who moved to Blenheim this year to lead the project, said he vouched for the region and hoped its lifestyle would attract the skilled workers needed. They would employ staff ranging from ‘‘process workers’’ to ‘‘highly qualified scientists’’.

Sanford has been producing a greenshell mussel powder from a small facility in Blenheim since it bought nutraceuticals company ENZAQ in 2017.

In addition to mussel powder, the new factory would process a further extract from that powder in the form of an oil, Stanley said.

‘‘We will be using the latest technology to extract oil from the mussel powder, which is then a very high value product.’’

The company would have the capability to do a wide range of marine extracts, ranging from seaweed, to marine collagen, to fish oil and protein extracts.

Scientists are looking at the anti-inflammatory properties in greenshell mussels and their role in reducing joint pain.

Stanley said expansion plans had been in place before the Government’s announcement in September, to help ‘‘streamline’’ the aquaculture industry in becoming a $3 billion industry by 2035. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash released the Government’s Aquaculture Strategy and said it hoped to remove barriers to aquaculture and work with the industry to ‘‘totally optimise’’ profits, while ensuring sustainability.

Stanley said there had been ‘‘pockets’’ of marine extracts occurring around the country, but he saw the new Blenheim factory as the beginning of a new industry.