Australia on cusp of aquaculture boom

AUSTRALIA has a golden opportunity to develop its aquaculture industry, according to global aquaculture specialist with Rabobank, Gorjan Nikolik.

Production opportunities will extend from the chilly ocean currents of southern Australia, to coastal region farmland around the continent and even large-scale inland farms established to grow fish and, shrimp and prawns.

But Australians don’t comprehend the size and value of this opportunity, said Nikolik, and despite producing 40,000 tonnes of salmon a year, the country imported more.

‘Australia has the land, the clean water, the environmental credentials and the skills - I’m so impressed, it’s got so much opportunity,’ he said.

‘Some places like Tasmania have everything going for them, including already having sophisticated, well-established production and processing businesses.’

Rabobank has a 3.2 billion euro loan portfolio with fish farming and processing businesses around the world. Along with Norway, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and parts of the US and Latin America, he said Australia had perfect credentials to be a leading producer.

Australia already has some of the best managed fisheries in the world, said Nikolik.

‘It also has some impressive vertically integrated business like Huon and Tassal... but there’s still a lot of opportunities and legislative support which need to be acted on quite urgently.’