June 16, 2008
Australian aquaculture company to expand in Europe, Asia
Australian based company Australis Aquaculture is planning major expansion under its new chairman Ian Mitton.
After more than two years in the US market, Australis, based in Perth is planning to enter European and South-East Asian markets - including Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The company is waiting on licence approval from the Vietnamese government for an offshore fish farm in Nah Trang, just a year after signing a memorandum of understanding with a local aquaculture supplier.
"They're doing an amazing job and some are farming in some pretty primitive conditions.
"But not all of those farms are producing the quality of barramundi that meet our criteria, so we have to be selective,' he said.
Under the banner of The Better Fish, Australis Aquaculture's US factory is producing 872 tonnes of barramundi - at what the company says is twice the rate of the past two financial quarters.
"The business being new, it's had its problems," said Mitton,
After listing on the Australia Securities Exchange in July 2004, Australis suffered a net loss of US$1.87 million in fiscal 2007, reflecting foreign exchange losses and other expenses.
