June 22, 2006

Clean Seas Tuna aims to open up Russian market

Australia's Clean Seas Tuna is exporting kingfish to Russia in a bid to open up the Russian market, Clean Seas Tuna chairman Hagen Stehr said.

Hundreds of kilogrammes of fish had been shipped to Russia from Clean Seas Tuna's offshore aquaculture facilities.

With wild fish stocks in Europe declining amidst increasing demand, Australia now has a vast potential market for its farmed fish.

Bird flu and mad cow disease had made seafood a more attractive option in Europe, Stehr said.

A favourable response from upmarket restaurants in Russia, the first to try the fish, would lead to regular shipments. However, it may take up to a year to before formal shipments can begin.

In fact, Clean Seas already exports about 64 tonnes of kingfish to countries such as Germany, France, the UK and Switzerland and also to Japan and the US.

Stehr said the farmed kingfish may even turn out to be larger than the southern bluefin tuna market.

Primary Industries and Resources SA aquaculture division executive director Ian Nightingale said more than half the revenue in the fishing industry now comes from aquaculture.