CANNING OF SALMON

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 December 1937, Page 10

CANNING OF SALMON

AUSTRALIA OPENING PLANT SYDNEY. December 17. The signing of a contract in Sydney for the delivery of nearly a,000,000 tins of Australian salmon marks the first step in a new industry. Wholesale grocery houses have agreed to take the salmon fish pack of a canning company at Narooma, on the south coast of New South Wales, ovei a period, and assist in advertising the product of the local market. The cannery is making extensive additions to the' canning plant, to cope with this order, and. orders which are expected to follow from overseas. Australian salmon have not been tinned in this country, except in experimental amounts. Experts say that the salmon, when properly handled, compares more than favourably with the “chum” and cheaper grades of Canadian and Alaskan salmon. A pink colour only is lacking in the Australian fish. Salmon are available on the eastern seaboard of Australia, in cominercial quantities, for nine months of the year. The run starts in April and continues until December.

Mr. C. Craigie, secretary of the New South Wales Fisheries Association, said that Australian salmon, unlike other species of good fish, could not be handled as soon as they were cought. “They must be taken and kept alive for a period under quiet conditions, otherwise their flesh is very tough,” he said. “Huge fish pens are being constructed by the Narooma Canning Co., to hold fish alive during the period they must be kept alive before canning. Tunny, yellowtail, and other edible fish known to be in waters along the coast would be canned .if the public supported the local fishing industry. The capture of pilchards for reduction for oil, meat, and fertiliser also is under consideration. The

industry will shortly provide employment for hundreds of Australian workers.”