| Te Uri o Hau has a joint venture with Mac Lab New Zealand Limited, a Nelson-based company which has been farming mussels for over 30 years. Mac Lab grows and processes about 8,000 tonnes per year in Nelson and the Coromandel, producing mainly for the international markets as anti arthritic tablets and pet food bases.
Aquaculture, or marine farming, is a $300m plus industry a year in New Zealand, with greenshell mussel exports alone worth $169m in the year 2000.
Interest in coastal ecosystems to harvest shellfish farming has intensified over the past five years as increasing demand for space to cultivate mussels and a moratorium on new marine farms in the Marlborough Sounds was lifted in July 1999.
Marine farms rely on unpolluted, nutrient-rich and sheltered waters. This can often conflict with other popular local activities like recreational water sports and has led to interest in more exposed large offshore marine farms.
The joint venture is investigating both mussel and oyster farming within the rohe. The start of production depends upon consents processes over the next 2-3 years.
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