The soaring NZ dollar is causing major concern in the New Zealand seafood industry, according to the chief executive of Sealord Group, the country''s biggest seafood company.
Doug McKay, Sealord chief executive said: "We've been over 60 US cents to the dollar for some time now and with every cent [that] it increases, the situation gets a lot worse." The $NZ at one pointed touched 69 cents.
He said Sealord was getting 50 per cent less for every kilo of fish it sold now to America than it did in 2001. They were cost-cutting at every possible turn and continually reviewing labour expenses as the Kiwi dollar continued to rise.
McKay said the high dollar had thrown the seafood industry into a crisis situation and was a huge negative for the industry.
The company exported 98 per cent of its product to the US, Europe and Japan and these markets were all affected by the current exchange rate.
Sealord normally produces an annual turnover of about $NZ600 million.
The company is now focusing on getting higher prices for its products and becoming as cost effective as possible.
New Zealand's King Salmon chief executive Paul Steere said the strong dollar was 'horrific'.
"It's made at least something like $NZ5 million difference to our bottom line in the last year," he added.
