Fish production soon

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32562, 23 March 1971, Page 2

Fish production soon

(N Z Press Associations ( NELSON, March 22. The joint JapaneseNew Zealand fishing company to be sited in Nelson might be processing fish by the end of next month. Officials of the three companies involved said in Nelson today that processing equipment and special nets were due to arrive on April 10. The company, which has not yet been named, will be based at Wonder Foods, Ltd, in Nelson and will produce surimi and fish fingers from barracouta during the first year, and probably will begin to process squid in the second year. Wonder Foods is supplying half the $lOO,OOO capital for the new company. The ' Hokuyu Suison Company, of Tokyo, will contribute 35 per cent of the capital, and the remaining 15 per cent will I be supplied by C. Itob and ’ Company, of Japan. NX CREW The president of Hokuyu . Suisan (Mr Hideo Hiya) and ! the general manager of Won- • der Foods (Mr C. C. Hufflett) emphasised that no , Japanese ships or fishermen . would be involved. r Mr Hufflett said: "We will use New Zealand ships and

crews under instruction from Japanese advisers.” The venture was being looked on as an exploratory pilot scheme for the first year, he said. Projections indicated that 400 metric tons of processed fish could be produced during the first year; nine tons of whole fish are required to produce three tons of processed fish. Surimi—an extruded fish meat used as a base for a famous Japanese dish, karnaboko—and fish fingers would be sold in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The new company would process the fish in Nelson and would not send whole fish to Japan. Fish not normally used on the New Zealand market would be processed, said Mr ; Hufflett. The fish would be supplied ■ by Wonder Foods’ vessels 1 and by other fishing boats working under contract. WINTER WORK Processing equipment and heavy trawl nets were due in Nelson on April 10, and the new company should be processing fish by the end of i April. The equipment and nets were worth about $60,000. i “We want to take advani tage of the winter fishing. We hope this will take away the I slack time,” Mr Hufflett said. 1 The company had plans to

begin fishing for squid and was interested in tuna but these species would not necessarily be sought in the first year. Initially, the company was interested in barracouta.

Squid would be exported to Japan where it was used in sushi, uncooked fish which was the Japanese equivalent of the marinated raw fish eaten in Scandinavia. Squid fishing might be an off-season venture for crayfish boats. The fishing was done at night and powerful lights were used to attract the squid to the boats, Mr Hufflett said.