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Smoked salmon filleting. (Photo: Mt Cook Alpine Salmon)
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon to build USD 5mln-plant
(NEW ZEALAND, 10/9/2012)
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon will shortly start building a NZD 6 million- (USD 4.9 million) salmon processing plant at Washdyke.
Chief executive Geoff Matthews has confirmed that construction will begin at the Sheffield St site shortly, with the first stage to be completed by April 2013.
The expansion will create 75 jobs: 35 new jobs to Timaru and another 40 jobs as the company broadens production and commissions an added-value smoke house in three to four years time, he stated.
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon took more than a year of negotiation to choose the site for the plant after also canvassing options from Oamaru to Rangiora, he commented, Fairfax NZ News reports.
The company holds the exclusive rights to farm fish in the Tekapo and Ohau hydro canals.
Matthews said the company was in the middle of a NZD 20 million- (USD 16.4 million) expansion and wanted to bring more of its work back to New Zealand.
Eighty per cent of the company's export production had secondary processing in Indonesia, he said, and what the firm considers a challenge now is finding workers skilled enough for the job.
“Bringing jobs back onshore is not without its challenges. The challenge for us as a company is to upskill our workforce to meet, and ideally exceed, the exacting standards that we currently obtain from our world-class processor, BMI, in Indonesia," he said, Otago Daily Times reports.
The jobs at the Washdyke plant will range from managerial to skilled filleters and fish-boners.
The new plant will be able to process 3,500 tonnes of harvested fish when running at full capacity, Matthews said.
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon farms more than 800,000 salmon in the hydro canals, but its consent allows up 2 million at full capacity.
"We can't feed China, but we can feed those who expect the highest quality salmon," Matthews stated.
The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) programme last week certified two Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Ltd farms located in the Mackenzie Basin area near Twizel, the first BAP-certified salmon farms in Australasia.
The unique Mt Cook facilities are the highest salmon farms in the world. They raise fish in canals that carry glacial water from mountain lakes to hydroelectric stations while letting the salmon grow in an environment free of diseases and chemical contaminants.
Related article:
- BAP certifies its first two salmon farms in Australasia
By Natalia Real
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media
Information of the company:
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Address:
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Tekapo Pukaki Hydro Canal Rd, Off State Highway 8
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City:
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Twizel
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State/ZIP:
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South Island
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Country:
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New Zealand
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Phone:
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+64 (03) 435 0018
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Fax:
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+64 (0) 21 370 038
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E-Mail:
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info@alpinesalmon.co.nz
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Skype:
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https://www.instagram.com/alpinesalmon/?hl=en
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