NZ King Salmon fish farming expansion plan gets fast-tracked inquiry

Tuesday 8th November 2011

New Zealand King Salmon’s proposal to establish 206 hectares of new Marlborough Sounds farming sites has been sent to an independent board of inquiry.

The eight-farm bid comes under the government’s nationally significant proposal process with the Environmental Protection Authority.

Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson said the almost trebling of NZKS’s current farm size meets the national significance criteria as it would involve considerable use of natural resources and impact an area of national significance and its environment.

NZKS is currently among the top 50 of farmed salmon producers in the world, producing about 8,600 tonnes a year from seven farms in Otanerau, Ruakaka, Te Pangu, Forsyth Bay, Waihinau, Clay Point and Crail Bay.

The new farms would be in Pelorus Sound, Port Gore, Tory Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound. NZKS has $115 million a year turnover and is majority owned by Malaysian controlled Evergreen Holdings and 43% by New Zealand’s Direct Capital, along with a 3.5% management shareholding.

Wilkinson said the five person board of inquiry, led by Judge Gordon Whiting will weigh up the environmental and natural resource use effects against its economic benefits. It is to be considered under recent aquaculture legislative amendments that allow for plan change requests and resource consent applications, where aquaculture is currently a prohibited activity.

NZKS employs 460 people in a vertically integrated farming, processing and marketing business, with 50% of its sales in New Zealand, 18% in Australia, 16% in Japan and 12% in North America.

If the board accepts NZKS’s plan change request, it will be prepared by the Marlborough District Council, which in turn would be publicly notified by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2012.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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