Industry
Here in New Zealand, aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of our seafood industry. Future growth will come largely through increased exports. To be competitive New Zealand must focus on sustainable, high value, innovative products that meet the needs of increasingly sophisticated world markets.
In its New Zealand Aquaculture Strategy the industry sets out the vision: The Aquaculture Industry goal is to achieve aquaculture sales of $1billion per annum by 2025. A 10-point plan sets out the key actions required to achieve the vision and goal:
- Establish a new national sector organisation
- Strengthen the partnership with government
- Strengthen the stakeholder partnerships
- Secure and promote investment in aquaculture
- Improve public understanding and support for aquaculture
- Promote Māori success in aquaculture
- Develop the market for New Zealand aquaculture products
- Maximise opportunities for innovation
- Promote environmental sustainability and integrity of aquaculture
- Invest in training, education and workforce promotion
The first point of the vision has already been realised with the establishment of New Zealand Aquaculture Ltd. The national organisation was created to promote cooperation and collaboration within the industry and to ensure that New Zealand aquaculture interests were well-represented internationally.
“Know your market, stay ahead of competitors and stick to business principles. We need to find and utilize new space through AMAs, but also thicken up current space by getting more productivity from our species, better methods, other markets to be explored while remaining environmentally and ecologically sustainable.”
-Mike Burrell, CEO, NZ Aquaculture LTD, SeaFOOD, February 2007
