A caviar export

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 17

A caviar export

Smoked New Zealand salmon and red caviar. These are two products from Bubbling Springs which the small Nelson firm Angus McNeill, Ltd, hopes to export. The firm specialises in processing fish delicacies and exports them to many parts of the world. This year 2500 salmon weighing 2020 kg from Bubbling Springs were processed at Nelson, smoked and packed and sold with the greatest of ease. Because of restrictions, none was exported, but last week Mr McNeill went to Australia with smoked salmon among the samples in bis bags.

Among them, also, was a red caviar which gourmets in Auckland have rated as better than most imported red caviars and the equal of Russian caviar. This year he received from Bubbling Springs about 100 kg of two-year salmon eggs—eggs which are too immature for spawning purwere processed and marketed in Auckland on a trial basis. They sold immediately and further orders could be only part-filled. The caviar was very attractively priced—about $2 per 25gm against a price of $4.50 for the same

quantity of West German red caviar. Mr McNeil) admitted the price might have had something to do with its popularity, but he gave an assurance that never again would it be sold at this price. “We were testing the market with a new product. Four of five people recommended to us in Auckland loved it,” he said. The smoked salmon sold at between $2O and $24 a kilogram retail, 90 per cent of it going to Auckland buyers. Mr McNeill said his wholesale price would have been lower had he not had to process the fish whole as required by the regulations.