AGAR INDUSTRY IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27917, 14 March 1956, Page 17

AGAR INDUSTRY IN N.Z.

MODEST RETURNS FOR J COLLECTORS About 300 persons, many of them : Maoris and some pensioners, collect 1 seaweeds, mainly on North Island ] coastlines, for the manufacture of agar in Christchurch. Agar is used for 1 bacteriological cultures and medicines, ‘ in meat canning and in the manufacture of confectionery and pharmaceutical preparations. The collection of the seaweeds can be a reasonably profitable part-time activity, but collectors are unlikely to make fortunes out of it. Most df the suitable seaweeds are recovered from underwater reefs, and this involves diving which can be carried out only from about November to May when the water is reasonably warm. This spell in operations is also necessary so that the seaweed can reproduce itself. Even in the most favourable areas for collection the return to collectors is not high. In one of the most favourable localities where agar seaweeds are brought in, collectors net only about £lOO each a year. A clergyman and his family of six who spent a two weeks’ holiday hunting for weed made no more than about £25 for their efforts. There is, however, room for- more extensive collection of the seaweeds. For the last 'four years the Davis Gelatine Company in Christchurch, which manufactures agar, has had to close down this section of its plant for a period each year because it has not received enough seaweed to keep it in full production. It has only recently resumed making agar after being out of production since the end of September. 100 Tons a Year The factory receives on an average a little more than 100 tons of seaweed a year. Only about two tons are of South Island origin. This comes from Kaikoura. Production of agar last year amounted to 24 tons, of which only five tons were used in New Zealand. New Zealand consumption of agar is comparatively small. The Christchurch Public Hospital, for instance, is reported to use only about 101 b of agar a year. The surplus production is exported. The collecting of agar seaweeds in New Zealand began during World War II when supplies from Japan were cut off and the British Government asked the New Zealand Government to try to make agar. Expert botanists from the Plant Research Bureau searched the coasts of the North and South Islands for suitable seaweed. They recommended the use of two seaweeds —Pterocladia lucida and Pterocladia capillacea. The weeds are found in Northland, at the Great Barrier Island, on the east and west coasts of the Coromandel Peninsula, in the Bay of Plenty, on the east coast of the North Island, at Mahia Peninsula, and from Cane Kidnappers. The agar industry can only continue to function in New Zealand so long as Japanese agar is not permitted into the country, as on the Japanese coasts there are more extensive beds of suitable seaweed and it can be recovered more cheaply.