Crayfish efforts earn triple price
THE pain endured in 2020 has paid off for one Te Anau exporter who received triple the normal price for live crayfish sold to Chinese buyers last month.
Schuck Enterprises Ltd owner Mike Schuck managed to sell rock lobster, fished from Milford Sound and Riverton and packaged at his Te Anau factory, for about $180/kg in December — an increase of about $120 compared to previous years.
The increase was mainly due to recent political fallout which meant China no longer accepted certain exports from Australia, including live crayfish, also called koura or rock lobster.
‘‘Without the Australia issue, we would be in a much worse position.’’
It was no small feat for the small Southland business, the only company exporting live lobster from New Zealand during the Covid19 lockdown.
The reason it could do it came down to the company’s size and social distancing not being an obstacle.
This was because his family, all living in the same house, were doing all the work.
It was also one of the only two New Zealand companies allowed to return its catch to the sea during the short time there was no way of exporting it.
‘‘It was because we knew exactly where it came from, so we could return it to the exact same reef.
‘‘It would’ve been a terrible waste if we weren’t able to do that.’’
Mr Schuck, with the help of his family, made a 17hour return trip to Christchurch once a week, for several weeks, to deliver their product to the airport. From there, it was flown to Shanghai.
‘‘After a point it just got too hard. We’d leave here at midnight to get it on the plane by 8am.’’
When Level 4 came into play, he considered getting a freight driver but decided instead to contract a plane.
‘‘They took all their seats out so there was more air cargo space. We flew 35 tonnes from Manapouri to Auckland and had to prebook space on flights to Shanghai which was hard for exporters to secure.’’
By the end of December, Schuck Enterprises had caught 70% of its own limit, all of which was exported to China.
For now, there was not a single lobster in his Te Anau factory and it was time for a break, a short one, nonetheless.