Fish cool stores wanted at port

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 17

Fish cool stores wanted at port

The owner of one of the; biggest independently owned fishing trawlers in the South I Island says he would base his fishing vessel at Lyttelton if the port had adequate; shore-based* facilities. Mr J. H. Brough, owner of! the 23m Austro Carina' fishing trawler at Timaru. said the Lyttelton Harbour Board should be looking at; this aspect if it wanted toi service its share of the! fishing industry. The Lyttelton board’s proposed development plan did not seem to be looking at the future of the fishing industry. he said. The lack of fish-processing factories at Lyttelton was the major dis-!

■ advantage because the caritage of fish from Lyttelton Ito factories in Christchurch ! was almost as costly as j from Timaru to Christ- | church. ; His trawler was now the ' biggest fishing vessel based ' at timaru and was a major supplier to Feron Seafoods. Ltd. i Because of what Mr; (Brough described as an arbi-i trary cut in the prices being; I paid for his catch, he ceased ! to supply the company and is, now supplying United Fisheries. Ltd. of Christchurch, through cool stores at Timaru not available at Lyttelton. I During the next two to

three months he will consider moving to Lyttelton. Other joint venture operators have said they intend to work out of Timaru instead of Lyttelton because of the shore facilities available at Timaru. Mr Brough said a fish-pro-cessing factory established within the port area would attract the bigger trawlers hack to Lyttelton. The port l had distinct advantages for the bigger trawlers, he said, whereas the drag round Banks Peninsula could be a disadvantage for the smaller fishing vessels. "For the bigger boats with a greater carrying capacity it is not such a drag at all

and the amount of fish now being caught between the peninsula and Wellington suggests that Lyttelton may become more central than Timaru ” said Mr Brough. Mr Brough, who had sup-

plied Ferons Seafoods since 1956. said fishermen were now unable to take advantage of higher auction prices through the winter because the Christchurch auction had closed. Mr R. S. Morris, manager of Feron Seafoods, said recently that the closing of the auction market in Christchurch had made it necessary to offer firm prices to fishermen. The Timaru Harbour Boaru plans to run the biggest fishing port in New Zealand within the next three years. Mr Brough said the existing cool stores close to the port gave Timaru a distinct advantage because fishermen needed to be able to unload straight from the vessel into storage. limaru at present handles about 2SOO tonnes of fish a year and plans provide for an increase to about 19.000 tonnes during the next three years. Lyttelton has already lost one of the biggest joint-ven-ture operations involving Bing Harris and Co.. Ltd,

and a Korean company in a S3OM fishing deal. The Wellington textiles, garments, and softgoodt group has linked with sam hwa and Company, one oi South Korea's largest tra ders. The new company Bing Harris Samhwa 'sew Zealand. Ltd. will have i capital of $500,000 with t first year's sales target oi S6M rising to S3OM at tht end of three years. Government approval ha? been given to the joint ven Hire with an allocation ol 1134 tonnes of squid and 7501 tonnes of trawl fish. Dis missions have already beer held with the Timaru Har hour Board about shore based facilities. Three vessels under char ter from Samwha are due t, arrive in New Zea!an< waters in late November. After squid fishing tht company will turn to deep line fishing including turn and ling. Two stern trawler: will be added to the fleet to wards the end of next year. By the end of 1979 it it expected that the number o vessels will increase to 1( with a progressive increa?< to 20. Each trawler wil have a crew of about 30. Plan., indicate that abou 120 people will l>e employet ashore at Timaru by th< consortium.