Kiwis prepare to mussel into US market

The $150 million greenshell mussel industry hopes direct marketing to restaurant chains in the United States will tempt the tastebuds and open the wallets of middle America.

The industry is looking ahead after a year marked by frustration and encounters with bureaucracy.

Marketing promotions committee chairman Bruce Hearn said the frustration related to aquaculture law reform and the introduction of mussel spat into the quota management system.

"We try to forget the problems of bureaucracy and move on, otherwise you'll be living in the past, but we've had issue after issue after issue," he said.

The council has approved a new approach - targeting restaurant chains directly - to the key United States market, and if successful, Hearn said demand could rocket.

A "substantial" amount would be spent on marketing and promotion this year, he said.

Last year, the council appointed Maryanne Hedrick, a US marketing consultant.

She said mussels had an image problem with Americans more accustomed to the small blue and black variety.

"The product does have a lot going for it and Americans are interested in new things.

"There are certain types of restaurants that will be creative and open to new products and it is those ones we will be targeting," she said in a council newsletter.

Hearn said the high quality of New Zealand's larger and meatier greenshell mussel gave it the edge on its smaller cousin.

The council would proceed with great care.

"If you make a mistake you'll never get back."

Pacific Rim cuisine was spreading and the emergence of a more adventurous American public meant now was the time to strike, said Hearn.

Sales pitches would involve matching potential US customers with Kiwi suppliers based on size and suitability.

This could be sole-supply contracts or might involve co-operation among some of New Zealand's 700 mussel farms.

Hearn expected up to 10 sales pitches would be made to Americans this year.

The council will be closely involved in the process of gaining a contract, backing away when the commercial relationship is sealed.

New Zealand already exports about 95 per cent of its greenshell mussel harvest to more than 60 countries.