Europe appears to be the next market to be targeted by Perth headquartered Australis Aquaculture Ltd after the company received an export licence by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Europe appears to be the next market to be targeted by Perth headquartered Australis Aquaculture Ltd after the company received an export licence by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The licence allows Australis to sell its barramundi in this potentially lucrative market.
Australis Aquaculture chairman Stewart Graham told WA Business News the export licence gave the company access to the world’s largest seafood market and expanded the range of customers available to Australis.
“We have received enquiries from leading European wholesalers, including two from Germany and another from a wholesaler in the United Kingdom who were interested in supplying barramundi to their foodservice and retail customers,” he said.
“The shift into Europe is going to mean doubling the size of our market for barramundi. It is a slightly different market to the United States, as they require smaller fish [800 grams].”
Mr Graham said access to the European market should allow Australis to achieve a faster growth in sales, following the company’s next expansion phase, currently expected to lift output to 5,000 tonnes a year.
“Currently we are sold out of what we have in the market,” he said.
Mr Graham said prices for seafood in Europe were generally higher than in the US.
“Australis already delivers its product to Boston daily, so via airfreight, restaurant patrons in Europe can expect fresh barramundi on their plate the next day,” he said.
A major selling point in Europe is barramundi’s high level of omega-3 oils, which are near those for salmon.
The company believes the establishment of a customer base in Europe will allow Australis to hedge against fluctuations in the US dollar while also bringing the company a step closer to conducting due diligence on an expansion program in that market.
The move into the EU market is part of Australis’s objective to further diversify and expand its customer base and revenue streams.
Europe represents the company’s second key export market, after the US. In June, Australis announced that its US hatchery was fully operational with about one million juvenile barramundi currently in production.
The new hatchery is to be expanded from a current capacity of two million fingerlings a year to up to seven million.
First sales from the expanded facility are expected in February 2007.
Australis recently reported a 238 per cent increase in total revenue, to $5.6 million, while its net loss decreased 82 per cent from a loss of $1.78 million in the 2005 financial year to a loss of $322,892 for 2006. The company’s third-party sales grew by 672 per cent, from $412,511 in 2005 to $3,186,361 for 2006.
Australis is one of a number of Western Australian companies expanding their export markets of barramundi overseas. Among these is Fremantle-based Cell Aquaculture Ltd, which currently produces barramundi on three continents. In the Netherlands, the company completed a production facility and is aiming to complete a production facility in the US.
Cell has advised that the installation of its final grow-out equipment in the US production facilities is nearing completion.
