NEW VENTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 308, 29 December 1937, Page 11

NEW VENTURE

CANNING OF SALMON AUSTRALIA OPENING PLANT SYDNEY, Dec. 17. The signing of a contract in Sydney for the delivery of nearly 5,0UU,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, over a period, and assist in advertising the product on the local market. The cannery is making extensive additions to the uamiiiig pla/.1, 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 handleci, compares more than favourably with tiic "chum” and cheaper graces 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 commercial quantities, for nine i months of the year. The run starts in I April and continues until December. Mr. C. Craigie, secretary of the New

• South Wales Fisheries Association, paid that Australian salmon, unlike I other species of good fish, could not be handled as soon as they were caught. | “They must be taken and kept alive | for a period under quiet conditions, i otherwise their flesh is very tough," :he said. "Huge lish pens are being constructed by the Narooma Canning Co. to hold lish alive during the period they must be kept alive before ' canning. Tunny, yellowtail, and other edible lish known to be in waters along the coast would be canned if the public supported the local fishing industry. The capture oi pilchards for reduction for oil, meal, and fertiliser also is under consideration. The industry will shortly provide employment for hundreds of Australian workers.”