70 | Growth strategy paying off T from page 68 Clearwater Mussels has set itself the target of harvesting 25,000 tonnes of mussels annually. PRODUCTION Clearwater Mussels “We wanted to be farming on our own account and to do that you had to have economy of scale,” says John. He and Lynn own a sheep, beef and forestry farm, and whether it’s sheep, beef, trees or mussels, John believes there’s a choice to be made at a certain point in farming about scale. They chose the route of upscaling so they didn’t have to do everything themselves, and they could build the state-of-the-art vessel they wanted. “That was a big step for us,” says John, “to be able to pay people to help us.” John was convinced the amalgamation with Talleys in 2007 would give them all the scale they needed. “We were harvesting 5000 tonnes but I still couldn’t make it work with the structure that we had,” says John. “You can do all the spreadsheet analysis you like but the only way I could see forward, and this is the same I believe whether it’s agriculture or aquaculture, is to find the sweetspot which meant making it bigger and hoping for the best.” Although he’d like to claim some sort of inspired foresight John says it’s only looking back that his determination to grow is justified as he can see on the spreadsheets that their fixed costs more or less stay the same after about 12,000 tonnes which is now their breakeven point. Clearwater Mussels has set itself the target of harvesting 25,000 tonnes of mussels annually, which means an annual increase of 7,000 which John is confident they can achieve. To get the water space they needs they’ve bought and leased farms as well as entering into a number of agreements with small mussel farmers scattered through the Sounds similar to the share-milking agreements common in dairy farming. “We pay them a healthy percentage based on production which gives us the incentive to make it work, which means we have to be pushing that production as much as we can, so it makes us look for that continual improvement we need,” explains John John puts his skills as a biologist to work, closely observing the molluscs and their behaviour over the seasons, hoping for “one of those eureka moments” that will improve production. It was one of those that led to the development of what John describes as a sort of “bottle-brush” rope. Providing multiple points for the green-lip mussels to attach to and significantly reducing slippage, which is the number of mussels that simply let go of the rope they’re on. Another moment was when John suddenly realized that green-lips not only don’t need lots of space around their ropes, they prefer it otherwise, so they now hang more ropes in different configurations than they used to. “Working by observation is a slow process but in some of those areas where we thought we had declining production – we’ve doubled it,” he says with satisfaction. John sees his innovation as part and parcel of New Zealand’s farming legacy of which he believes all New Zealanders should be proud. “It’s amazing what farmers achieve in this country. It’s a hard business with the vagaries of climate and storm events and so much change, but there are still so many good people out there keen to do it despite all, to work hard over long hours and be innovative out there in the rain and the wind. “Farming’s still the backbone of New Zealand, and I think it’s pretty amazing.” Helping you mould your future www.vplas.co.nz Vision Plastics New Zealand Ltd 3 Furnace Place, Silverdale, Auckland, NZ P.O Box 443, Silverdale 0944 Telephone 09 427 0674 Proudly Supplying Rotational Moulding Powders to Clearwater Mussels Supporting Clearwater Mussels Innovation in Aquaculture Development Suppliers of High Performance Ropes to the NZ Aquaculture & Fishing Industries 42 Maces Road Christchurch | Ph 03 3 845118 | www.ssmarine.co.nz QUALITY EQUIPMENT LIMITED N E W Z E A L A N D R O P E A N D T W I N E M A N U F A C T U R E R S Quality Equipment is proud to work with Clearwater Mussels and the NZ Mussel Industry Auckland - 70 Hillside Rd, Glen eld 0627 | Contact: Joe Franklin Jnr - 027 223 8112 | joejnr@qe.co.nz | musselrope.co.nz Nelson - 124 Vickerman St, Port Nelson 7010 | Contact: Jason Lovell - 027 473 9132 | nelson@qe.co.nz
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