Australia’s Oyster Coast aims to raise the bar in improving oyster quality and supply across Australia by expanding its nursery programme and farming operations.
The oyster company acquired Holiday Coast Oysters, a commercial oyster farm in Port Macquarie known for its quality Sydney Rock Oyster wild caught spat, earlier this month in a bid to meet industry demand for oyster seed and spat.
Port Macquarie’s Hastings River is a major nursery estuary for the Sydney Rock Oyster and according to Craig Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Australia’s Oyster Coast, this acquisition triples the company’s production of oyster spat.
He explained that the challenges of floods, bushfires and Covid-19 restrictions on the NSW north coast coupled with the recent detection of QX disease in Port Stephens has resulted in an industry wide undersupply of healthy spat.
“Purchasing Holiday Coast Oysters means we can expand our operations in wholesale seed and spat while ensuring a continuous supply of quality food grade oysters for our customers,” Craig Smith said.
While the vendors move onto other agricultural endeavours, the rest of the Holiday Coast Oysters farming team will join the Australia’s Oyster Coast Hastings River team.
“Our Hastings farm is next door to the Holiday Coast farm, so we’re excited that Russell, James and Gracie have accepted positions with us and can continue to grow these beautiful oysters they are so passionate about,” he said.
This acquisition follows the recent appointment of Todd Graham, a north coast oyster farmer with extensive hatchery experience and current Chair of the NSW Farmers Oyster Committee, as the company’s Nursery Manager.
With Covid restrictions easing across NSW this month and with Christmas orders exceeding previous years, the demand for quality rock oysters is high. Australia’s Oyster Coast is positioning itself to meet growing market demands in Australia while consistently delivering high quality oysters.
