Frustration with the Resource Management Act will result in Sealord exiting its New Zealand aquaculture business in the next three years, says the fishing group's chief executive, Graham Stuart.
Sealord has fish farms off Tasmania and Queensland and that is where it sees the future for its aquaculture arm, which accounts for 10 per cent of group turnover. Stuart's frustration stems from what he sees as regional councils' resistance to aquaculture at a time when central government is calling for greater investment from the industry.
"There are some types of decisions that need to be recentralised and made in Wellington... we are a country of only four-and-a-half million people for heaven's sakes," he says.
Shifting aquaculture to Australia also increases its proximity to increasingly voracious Asian markets. China accounts for less than 10 per cent of the group's turnover but sales have doubled in the past three years.
"I do not see any constraint to that demand at the moment," Stuart says.
