April 02, 2018
Moana in good shape as net cast for new skipper
The outgoing head of pan-Maori fishing company Moana New Zealand says he is leaving the business in a good place with great brands and renewed infrastructure.
During his five years in the job Carl Carrington oversaw the change of name from Aotearoa Fisheries to Moana and brought a focus on getting higher returns for the company’s lobster, paua and wetfish.
He says the business, which brings together a number of companies acquired over the 30 years since the first Maori fisheries settlement, is now working under one structure.
Accounts for 2017 tabled at last week’s Te Ohu Kaimoana annual meeting showed while revenue fell $25 million to $144 million, the $19 million profit matched the 2016 result.
Mr Carrington says it was hit by a competitor dumping large amounts of lobster onto the Chinese market early in the year.
"Definitely China pricing for lobster was challenging last year. It’s starting to comeback to where it was previously but it just highlights the volatility of some of these markets that you think things are going well and suddenly pricing changes," he says.
Mr Carrington says the biggest challenge for the industry is environmental degradation, including the damage done to coastal water space by farming run-off.
Moana’s chief operating officer, Steve Tarrant, has been appointed acting chief executive.
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