Carl Carrington: NZ King Salmon CEO on the Government's plan to invest more into aquaculture

Plans to expand salmon fishing and push it further out into the open ocean have moved forward after the Government announced a cash injection into the aquaculture sector.

The Government will invest $11.72 million in salmon farming over five years, as part of a $29.3 million programme led by Salmon King.

Salmon King CEO Carl Carrington says their product is in demand all over the world - and there's room for the sector to boost exports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan Bridge government putting faith that our aquaculture industry will
take off. It's investing twelve million dollars more into salmon
farming over the next five years, and we'll look at
ways to expand farming to deep water and prove its viability.
That's all in the hopes of adding five hundred million
bucks to salmon exports by twenty thirty five. Carl Carrington's

(00:21):
the n Z King Salmon CEO. He's with me this evening. Hi, Carl, Oh,
good evening, How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Really good? Thank you? First of all, can you the
exports currently about two hundred million dollars if I'm not mistaken,
is another five hundred million dollars realistic?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Absolutely? I mean the sector has really been stymied for
growth for over two decades and our biggest challenge with
market development is we just don't have any any product
available to build the new markets. Now we could if
we had the volume, we would be able to sell
everything twice over straight away. So we're in very deep markets.

(01:04):
We're a very small niche. We've got highly differentiated product
and it's in strong demand globally. So if we had
the volume, yes, we could sell it and it's very
high value. So five hundred million of export revenue, it's
incredibly realistic. We've just got to unlock the industry and
let us get on with growing it.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
By that you mean more consent for farming, well, more.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Consents for farming, but in particular the future is about
getting into what we call open ocean farming, such as
the Blue Endeavor site, which we have the consent for now,
which is seven k's off kp Plambert in the Oulton
Marlborough Sound. So that's kind of where we see the
long term future for growth. And you know, but it's

(01:49):
not withoutout its risks, and we have to firstly pilot
the stepping into that environment and when we're confident then
we can scale it up and expand. And that's where
the future for salmon growth will.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Be, which is part of what this money is for. Right.
Are you having to go deep into the ocean because
the waters are getting warmer closer to the coast, so
you're needing to get out to the cool of fresher water.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that's all part of it. For sure. Waters out
further out and are going to be a little bit cooler.
But the main thing is the water column is very deep,
and you know, it's just we think it'll be just
a better overall environment out there, So that's the main
driver for it.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
How much harder is that, because it's obviously that's a
bit of government money. Imagine you've got a lot of
yours going into how much harder is it to farm
deep water versus coastal.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, we're cautiously optimistic about it, or else we wouldn't
be doing it in the first place. So we will
be using technologies that are currently deployed internationally. The big
difference though, it needs to be able to work for
a New Zealand king salmon species as opposed to generally
Atlantic or co host species, and it needs to be

(03:06):
adapted to New Zealand conditions. So we're as coarsely optimistic
that you know, the infrastructure will be will be fine.
It's just we have to learn how to drive it
in the New Zealand conditions.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right, What will it look like if you're I don't know,
if you're flying driving by an a boat or flying over
this and that it's seven k's off the coast, what
do you see, Well, you.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Won't see very much at all, especially if you're on
the coast, you'll hardly be able to see anything at
all because it's seven kas away. And if you're flying overhead,
you'll just see beautiful round pens and it'll look very pristine.
No visual impact at all.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Really okay, And so I guess in theory the potential
here is unlimited because we have so much coastline, we
have so much open ocean. If you can prove then
you can do it with King Salmon and the open
ocean and New Zealand, then the world's your oyster, so
to speak.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well exactly, and I think this is fantastic for New
Zealand because we have to find primary We have to
find sectors of the economy that are able to really
lean into the agenda to double export value, and salmon
is one of those great untapped sectors. We've got a
unique position in the world with such a differentiated species,

(04:27):
We've got fantastic open ocean environments be able to do
it in. We just have to test the test the
technologies and prove up that we're capable of doing it.
And really, the world is the sector's oyster. This is
not just about New Zealand. King Salmon. By the way.
This is a program that we're undertaking that the learnings

(04:49):
will be shared across the industry.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Can you just one more time, is why is it
taking you so long to do this to develop this?
What is the tricky part that you try to work
out that's going to take years to figure out?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, first of all, we have to get the consent right,
So Blue Endeavor took us nearly ten years and ten
million dollars to sort through weight our way through the rama.
Thankfully we're there in the end and we've got the
consent through. Now what we need to do is actually
just get comfortable that firstly, the infrastructure works in the

(05:25):
environment the way we're setting it up, that we know
how to operate in that environment. It's quite different versus
an in short environment. We're also going to be piloting
what's called recirculating aquaculture systems, so that's land based aquaculture
because to step into the open ocean you have to
have the fresh water capability as well, which is where

(05:47):
you grow the baby salmon and eventually they become small
and then you transfer them out to sea. So it's
an all integrated program. It really is, from the mountains
to the sea is what we have to have to
think about. And also we have to actually breed salmon
to be resilient for the future as well. So part

(06:08):
of the program we'll be looking at some novel technologies
to use for breeding more resilient fish, so identifying in
our families of salmon, which are the brothers and sisters
that are really resilient to things like thermotolerance. So it's
a complex business and I always say aquaculture you need
to be a dose of patients and caution will serve

(06:30):
us well.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Fascinating stuff here. I was thinking, you just throw the
fish in the ocean and Bob's your uncle. It's all done.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Only more to.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Carl, Hey, thank you very much and best of luck
with this. It sounds like as you said it end
this possibility excellent.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Carl Carrington, the en King Salmon Chief executive with us
talking there about the fact that the government's putting twelve
million more dollars into salmon farming over the next five
years and much of it is going to be deep
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