Sealord Expands Farmed Fish Supply

Sealord has boosted its fish supplies for the Australian market by buying into two established aquaculture operations, one based in Queensland and the other in Tasmania, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Sealord.

"Expanding into finfish aquaculture to supplement our wild catch is one of the key planks of our strategic plan, " said Sealord Chief executive Graham Stuart.

" The world trend is towards aquaculture because we all know we've got to manage the wild resource sustainably and that means there won't be major increases in quotas. Aquaculture enables us to grow the range of species we offer and improve our service to key retail customers."

In 2009 Sealord purchased the Queensland-based King Reef Group, the largest capacity barramundi aquaculture operation in Australia. King Reef, which was established in the mid-1990s, is a fully integrated barramundi breeding, growing and processing enterprise.

Its assets range from barramundi brood stock, hatchery and nursery operations, through to growing, harvesting, processing facilities and distribution. The operation is capable of growing and processing well over 1,500mt of fish a year, using existing ponds and grow out resource.

Early this year Sealord purchased a 50% shareholding in leading Tasmanian Ocean Trout company Petuna Aquaculture, founded by Peter and Una Rockliff. Petuna also has an increasing share of the Australian Atlantic salmon market.

Petuna's products have become an integral part of Sealord's Australian fresh, chilled and frozen fish marketing business that also include inshore species supplied by Sealord's New Zealand joint-venture Westfleet.

Products from Petuna Aquaculture and King Reef will continue to be exclusively marketed through Sealord's Australian alliance partners Kailis Brothers.