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Speaker 1: Bryan Bridge government putting faith that our aquaculture industry will

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Speaker 1: take off. It's investing twelve million dollars more into salmon

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Speaker 1: farming over the next five years, and we'll look at

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Speaker 1: ways to expand farming to deep water and prove its viability.

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Speaker 1: That's all in the hopes of adding five hundred million

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Speaker 1: bucks to salmon exports by twenty thirty five. Carl Carrington's

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Speaker 1: the n Z King Salmon CEO. He's with me this evening. Hi, Carl, Oh,

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Speaker 1: good evening, How are you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really good? Thank you? First of all, can you the

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Speaker 1: exports currently about two hundred million dollars if I'm not mistaken,

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Speaker 1: is another five hundred million dollars realistic?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? I mean the sector has really been stymied for

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Speaker 2: growth for over two decades and our biggest challenge with

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Speaker 2: market development is we just don't have any any product

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Speaker 2: available to build the new markets. Now we could if

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Speaker 2: we had the volume, we would be able to sell

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Speaker 2: everything twice over straight away. So we're in very deep markets.

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Speaker 2: We're a very small niche. We've got highly differentiated product

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Speaker 2: and it's in strong demand globally. So if we had

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Speaker 2: the volume, yes, we could sell it and it's very

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Speaker 2: high value. So five hundred million of export revenue, it's

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Speaker 2: incredibly realistic. We've just got to unlock the industry and

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Speaker 2: let us get on with growing it.

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Speaker 1: By that you mean more consent for farming, well, more.

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Speaker 2: Consents for farming, but in particular the future is about

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Speaker 2: getting into what we call open ocean farming, such as

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Speaker 2: the Blue Endeavor site, which we have the consent for now,

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Speaker 2: which is seven k's off kp Plambert in the Oulton

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Speaker 2: Marlborough Sound. So that's kind of where we see the

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Speaker 2: long term future for growth. And you know, but it's

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Speaker 2: not withoutout its risks, and we have to firstly pilot

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Speaker 2: the stepping into that environment and when we're confident then

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Speaker 2: we can scale it up and expand. And that's where

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Speaker 2: the future for salmon growth will.

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Speaker 1: Be, which is part of what this money is for. Right.

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Speaker 1: Are you having to go deep into the ocean because

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Speaker 1: the waters are getting warmer closer to the coast, so

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Speaker 1: you're needing to get out to the cool of fresher water.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all part of it. For sure. Waters out

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Speaker 2: further out and are going to be a little bit cooler.

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Speaker 2: But the main thing is the water column is very deep,

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Speaker 2: and you know, it's just we think it'll be just

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Speaker 2: a better overall environment out there, So that's the main

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Speaker 2: driver for it.

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Speaker 1: How much harder is that, because it's obviously that's a

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Speaker 1: bit of government money. Imagine you've got a lot of

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Speaker 1: yours going into how much harder is it to farm

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Speaker 1: deep water versus coastal.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're cautiously optimistic about it, or else we wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be doing it in the first place. So we will

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Speaker 2: be using technologies that are currently deployed internationally. The big

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Speaker 2: difference though, it needs to be able to work for

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand king salmon species as opposed to generally

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Speaker 2: Atlantic or co host species, and it needs to be

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Speaker 2: adapted to New Zealand conditions. So we're as coarsely optimistic

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Speaker 2: that you know, the infrastructure will be will be fine.

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Speaker 2: It's just we have to learn how to drive it

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Speaker 2: in the New Zealand conditions.

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Speaker 1: Right, What will it look like if you're I don't know,

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Speaker 1: if you're flying driving by an a boat or flying over

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Speaker 1: this and that it's seven k's off the coast, what

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Speaker 1: do you see, Well, you.

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Speaker 2: Won't see very much at all, especially if you're on

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Speaker 2: the coast, you'll hardly be able to see anything at

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Speaker 2: all because it's seven kas away. And if you're flying overhead,

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Speaker 2: you'll just see beautiful round pens and it'll look very pristine.

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Speaker 2: No visual impact at all.

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Speaker 1: Really okay, And so I guess in theory the potential

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Speaker 1: here is unlimited because we have so much coastline, we

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Speaker 1: have so much open ocean. If you can prove then

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Speaker 1: you can do it with King Salmon and the open

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Speaker 1: ocean and New Zealand, then the world's your oyster, so

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Speaker 1: to speak.

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Speaker 2: Well exactly, and I think this is fantastic for New

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Speaker 2: Zealand because we have to find primary We have to

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Speaker 2: find sectors of the economy that are able to really

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Speaker 2: lean into the agenda to double export value, and salmon

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Speaker 2: is one of those great untapped sectors. We've got a

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Speaker 2: unique position in the world with such a differentiated species,

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Speaker 2: We've got fantastic open ocean environments be able to do

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Speaker 2: it in. We just have to test the test the

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Speaker 2: technologies and prove up that we're capable of doing it.

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Speaker 2: And really, the world is the sector's oyster. This is

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Speaker 2: not just about New Zealand. King Salmon. By the way.

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Speaker 2: This is a program that we're undertaking that the learnings

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Speaker 2: will be shared across the industry.

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Speaker 1: Can you just one more time, is why is it

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Speaker 1: taking you so long to do this to develop this?

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Speaker 1: What is the tricky part that you try to work

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Speaker 1: out that's going to take years to figure out?

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, we have to get the consent right,

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Speaker 2: So Blue Endeavor took us nearly ten years and ten

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Speaker 2: million dollars to sort through weight our way through the rama.

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Speaker 2: Thankfully we're there in the end and we've got the

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Speaker 2: consent through. Now what we need to do is actually

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Speaker 2: just get comfortable that firstly, the infrastructure works in the

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Speaker 2: environment the way we're setting it up, that we know

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Speaker 2: how to operate in that environment. It's quite different versus

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Speaker 2: an in short environment. We're also going to be piloting

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Speaker 2: what's called recirculating aquaculture systems, so that's land based aquaculture

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Speaker 2: because to step into the open ocean you have to

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Speaker 2: have the fresh water capability as well, which is where

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Speaker 2: you grow the baby salmon and eventually they become small

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Speaker 2: and then you transfer them out to sea. So it's

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Speaker 2: an all integrated program. It really is, from the mountains

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Speaker 2: to the sea is what we have to have to

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Speaker 2: think about. And also we have to actually breed salmon

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Speaker 2: to be resilient for the future as well. So part

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Speaker 2: of the program we'll be looking at some novel technologies

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Speaker 2: to use for breeding more resilient fish, so identifying in

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Speaker 2: our families of salmon, which are the brothers and sisters

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Speaker 2: that are really resilient to things like thermotolerance. So it's

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Speaker 2: a complex business and I always say aquaculture you need

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Speaker 2: to be a dose of patients and caution will serve

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Speaker 2: us well.

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Speaker 1: Fascinating stuff here. I was thinking, you just throw the

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Speaker 1: fish in the ocean and Bob's your uncle. It's all done.

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Speaker 2: Only more to.

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Speaker 1: Carl, Hey, thank you very much and best of luck

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Speaker 1: with this. It sounds like as you said it end

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Speaker 1: this possibility excellent.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Carl Carrington, the en King Salmon Chief executive with us

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Speaker 1: talking there about the fact that the government's putting twelve

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Speaker 1: million more dollars into salmon farming over the next five

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Speaker 1: years and much of it is going to be deep

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