Business Salmon sales to Aust, in doubt

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 21

Business

Salmon sales to Aust, in doubt

Doubt surrounds Australia as a market for the South Island’s fledgling salmon industry after the sudden tightening of import regulations across the Tasman.

A Nelson fish processor, Mr Angus McNeill, has been forced to stop trial shipments of smoked salmon under his Sea Smoke brand, and the New Zealand Salmon Company is wondering how its plans to export will be affected. No bulk sales of salmon have so far been made to Australia, but the market is seen as potentially important as various salmon farming ventures start to produce commercially. Mr McNeill was sending to Sydney and Melbourne small batches of cold smoked salmon to test the market until the Australian Government banned, from September 1, entry of fish processed in this way. “We were getting very close to matching market requirements,” Mr mcNeill said. With ability to match fish size, quality and price requirements of the market, Mr McNeill was about to step up his exporting before Christmas. The ban on cold smoked salmon is a precaution against entry to Australia of whirling disease, which can attack salmon and trout. Fresh and frozen salmon have long been excluded.

New Zealand has also long had a ban on all fresh, frozen and cold smoked salmon to protect against the disease. Occurrence of whirling disease in New Zealand was now negligible, Mr McNeill said.

He had a permit for Australian sales of hot smoked salmon, but this is much

By

MARTIN FREETH

less marketable than fish cold smoked. Processing at the temperatures which will guarantee the killing of any disease reduces the quality of the salmon’s texture. Mr McNeill said he would experiment with the smoking process to produce fish with a cold smoked quality but still within the Australian health requirements. However, he said, “I am pessimistic that we can develop a process to do both things.”

Fish for Mr McNeill’s Nelson plant comes from New Zealand’s two licensed salmon farms — one in Big Glory Bay, Stewart Island, which is run by BP, and the other at Bubbling Springs, Takaka. The New Zealand Salmon Company, floated earlier this month, plans exports of fish produced in ocean ranching based on the upper Rakaia River. It estimates a first harvest of 160 tonnes in the year to March, 1985. None of the product will be canned, and the company says it will pursue export sales.

“We are looking at all markets. Australia is one, but not the only one in our marketing programme,” Mr P. R. Townsend, a director and the general manager of Wilson Neill, Ltd, which has a marketing agreement with New Zealand Salmon. Mr Townsend said he was waiting for detailed information about the Australian ban and the reasons for it before assessing the significance for the New Zealand venture.

Most salmon producers would probably have worked on the assunption that Australia was an extension of the New Zealand market, he said. “It would be an irritation to New Zealand salmon producers if Australia was excluded.” Mr Townsend said.

: The Trade and Industry Department has followed developments closely. In February, its Trade Services Division prepared a guide to six export markets, focusing most on Australia. That report says canned salmon is far more popular than smoked, and smoked salmon amounts to only about 4 per cent of all smoked fish consumed.

However, the demand is consistent through the yearand New Zealand salmon is generally regarded as of better quality than that produced domestically. A department spokesman said the Australians had indicated some flexibility in applying the ban, and were more lenient than New Zealand, which treated whirling disease as if it were foot and mouth disease.

He suggested research was likely to be done to determine some smoking process which would preserve the salmon quality and also meet the health requirement. The department was interested in the long-term prospects for exports from New Zealand which could produce good quality salmon, relatively disease free by international standards, he said.

“In five years time, it could be quite significant." Mr McNeill , believed salmon sales could be made to other countries, but they would be “quite a lot more difficult” than exporting to Australia. The United States market had none of the restrictions. Although it now had a glut, Chinnock salmon as produced in New Zealand was very well regarded, he said. The New Zealand fish would be expensive in America, and would have to be well marketed. The New Zealand market for fresh and smoked salmon could also be expanded with promotion, Mr McNeill suggested. He estimated present annual consumption at about 15 tonnes of smoked salmon, and the same amount of the fresh product.