September 23, 2020
Oyster farming about to get flipped
Moana New Zealand is counting on a technology revolution to almost double its oyster output from 1.2 million to 2 million dozen a year.
The pan-Māori company has secured an $11 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund to roll out FlipFarm to its Pacific oyster farms in Te Taitokerau.
Shellfish operations general manager Fiona Wikaira says it allows growing oysters to be semi-automated, and for oysters to be grown in subtidal rather than inter-tidal zones.
FlipFarm, for which a patent is being sought, was developed by one of its contractors, Aaron Pannell, to grow oysters in a former mussel lease area in the Marlborough Sounds.
"He had to work out ways to mimic or replicate an inter-tidal growing environment. He was using floating bags but was having to do a lot of manual work in terms of flipping them or taking them out to enable the oysters to have time out of the water," Ms Wikaira says.
Moana grows its oysters in racked baskets rather than on sticks and it uses hatchery grown seed oysters rather than wild spat, so it can produce a consistent shape and quality of product.
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