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Currently, there are at least 1,000 tonnes
of kingfish on the gulf ready to harvest being farmed by five different
operators.
The fish, which are found in abundance in
local waters, are propagated at two hatcheries in the area and grow from
small fingerlings to a harvest size of three kilograms in about 12
months.
But Mr Dawson said that number could
quite easily expand to 4,000 tonnes or more over the next few years if
new markets for the fish could be found in the United States, Europe and
Asia.
"This is a process that won’t happen
overnight," Mr Dawson said.
"It’s a matter of gaining acceptance into
new markets and that will take time."
Mr Dawson’s job has been made easier
grants from the federal government that have allowed him to gain
in-market experience and will help the industry develop new high-tech
commercial packaging of kingfish.
Mr Dawson and his partners have
completely refurbished a local fish factory into a state-of-the-art
processing facility where fish fillets are vacuum packed to
EU and HACCP standards.
The real challenge has been spreading the
word about the safety, quality and versatility of kingfish, a fish that
inhabits most of the world’s oceans.
South Australian Finfish Growers
Association vice president Hagen Stehr said his operation should have
about 1,000 tonnes of yellowtail kingfish ready for harvest by the end
of year.
The
Stehr Group, which also farms southern
bluefin tuna, operates the Clean Seas Aquaculture Hatchery where almost
unlimited numbers of fingerlings can be propagated from naturally
occurring adult fish found in the gulf.
Mr Stehr is harvesting fish once a week
for the domestic market and is also actively attempting to find markets
overseas. (See FIS
World News, 19 April 2002.)
Both he and Mr Dawson attended the recent
European Seafood Exposition in
Brussels.
"It doesn’t take too long for people to
work out the quality of the fish," Mr Stehr said.
"It takes marketing skills, perseverance
and deep pockets but it will happen."
Both men have been pointing out that
kingfish has higher in valuable omega oils than salmon and its flesh was
suited to both sushi and western cooking.
Mr Dawson said one of the greatest
untapped markets was the Unites States, where the fish is known as
yellowtail or goldstriped amberjack.
Japan already farms about 200,000 tonnes
of three kinds of kingfish, but only five per cent of that is the prized
Hiramasa variety.
The other lower regarded varieties
include Hamachi and Kampachi.
And so the local product is marketed as
Australian Hiramasa in Japan.
"We can provide the standards the
European and now the American markets are looking for when it comes to
safety, traceability and continuity of quality," Mr Dawson said.
"We have grown this product from an egg
and know exactly what they are fed."
Kingfish grown in Spencer Gulf were
produced in local hatcheries and fed extruded pellets that were free of
GMOs and land-based animal byproducts, he said.
The Stehr Group also acknowledges a good
environmental reputation is the key to breaking open the European and
American markets.
"The clean waters are very important and
all our operations have the highest environmental certification with the
ISO14001," Mr Stehr said.
Mr Dawson has already managed to send
samples or speak to fish importers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy,
Norway, Sweden, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea,
China and the United States.
The greatest challenge of getting product
into American restaurants and British supermarkets was the cost of
transport, so the focus of the future had to be on smarter packaging and
logistics, he said.
"We are still exploring opportunities for
partners and developing markets outside of Australia," Mr Dawson said.
"We are already good at producing a high-quality product but we need
partners overseas."
One advantage was that the Australian
product reached its peak over the next few months when at the same time
Northern Hemisphere fish quality declined, he said.
The crucial time for marketing for the
fish already in the water is therefore over the next few months.
"It’s early days yet," Mr Dawson said.
"The next four to five months will be a
very telling time for this new industry."
 FIS.com
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