Aquaculture business New Zealand King Salmon (ASX: NZK) has inked a five year funding partnership with the New Zealand government in the duo’s efforts to drive the future of the salmon farming industry in the country.
The collaboration seeks to pilot the technologies that will provide a blueprint for substantive and sustainable salmon farming growth in New Zealand, and to boost exports of the fish.
Here, the government will invest up to NZ$11.7 million into a program known as ‘Future Farming: A Blueprint to Accelerate Salmon Farming in Aotearoa’ designed to establish viability of open ocean farming for the King salmon species.
New Zealand’s first open ocean salmon farm
More specifically, the program consists of three key workstreams including the company’s ‘Blue Endeavour’’ pilot project which could become New Zealand’s first open ocean salmon farm.
It also covers a ‘Recirculating Aquaculture Systems Pilot’ in relation to freshwater hatchery technologies, as well as novel breeding strategies to improve fish resilience and breeding accuracy.
The successful deployment of these technologies in a pilot but commercially relevant scale could demonstrate their utility to the wider salmon farming sector in New Zealand.
Significant government investment
The program was established under the government’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund with management noting that the NZ$11.7 million investment represents one of the largest outlays by SFF Futures since its inception in 2018.
New Zealand King Salmon chief executive officer, Carl Carrington, commented:
“Having the world’s first King salmon open ocean aquaculture site at Blue Endeavour is a big responsibility – while we are confident it will be successful, there will be some significant lessons learned along the way. This funding partnership will enable us to share these learnings and build industry and investor confidence”.
Pilot trial builds momentum
Development works for the pilot trial remain ongoing with the first fish currently growing at the company’s Tentburn facility. In the coming weeks the salmon are due to be relocated to the group’s nursery farm in Pelorus Sounds, and then onto Blue Endeavour around October this year.
Management believes Blue Endeavour could harvest some 10,000 metric tonnes of salmon each year in the future, and add about NZ$300 million per annum to New Zealand’s revenue.
Established King salmon producer
More broadly, New Zealand King Salmon is already the world’s largest producer of farmed King salmon through its Ōra King, Regal, Southern Ocean, and Omega Plus brands, as well as its namesake label.
In the 2024 financial year it generated a harvest volume surpassing 6,000 tonnes. About 36 per cent of its King salmon is consumed domestically with the remainder exported to more than 15 countries globally.