Yumbah Aquaculture is acquiring family-run oyster farming business Cameron of Tasmania, creating one of Australia’s largest shellfish producers in doing so.
Yumbah chief executive, David Wood, said that bringing Cameron of Tasmania into the Yumbah portfolio was a natural progression for the two companies who already have a joint venture oyster spat hatchery at Port Lincoln on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
“Acquiring a like-minded, established and scalable business like Cameron’s, with whom we already have a strong working relationship, further represents Yumbah’s ambition to be Australia’s leading shellfish aquaculture company,” said Mr Wood.
Earlier this year, Yumbah signed up Victorian mussel grower, Bay Sea Farms. “With these two acquisitions paired, we’re positioned for future growth, and we see a very positive future for Australian shellfish farming,” he added.
Cameron of Tasmania operates on the state’s east coast and since it began in 1971 has weathered more difficulties than most. In the last decade, the business has rebounded from the destructive 2013 Dunalley bushfires and, three years later, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) which decimated AUS$1.5 million of Cameron’s baby oysters in just one day.
It was POMS that led Cameron and Yumbah to embark on their joint venture, opening the Yumbah Hatchery in Port Lincoln, specifically designed to meet the consequent critical demand of the South Australian oyster spat market.
Ben Cameron will take a seat on the Yumbah board and remain general manager of the business that will still carry his family name.
