New Zealand’s Sanford Ltd is looking to close its Christchurch mussel processing facility in response to a reduction in crop supply.
Volker Kuntzsch, chief executive, Sanford Ltd, said that the impact on recent weather patterns on natural spat (offspring) over successive seasons has driven the company to a point where it needs to look at its mussel processing capacity.
Mr Kuntzsch said that wild spat supply is the single biggest constraint on the mussel industry with current spat shortages limiting future crop supply. In the long term, Sanford’s recent investment with government, industry and research organisations in the selective breeding of mussels will alleviate the industry’s reliance on wild caught spat.
“However, at this stage it is not anticipated that these initiatives will boost crop supply to levels where Sanford’s South Island plants are able to be efficiently utilised for the next two to three years.”
Sanford operates a manual opening plant in Christchurch and an automated facility in Havelock, in close proximity to the mussel farms in the Marlborough Sounds. Mr Kuntzsch said that combining the volumes in one plant would eliminate the strong likelihood of intermittent processing interruptions, unpredictable shift patterns and two sub optimal manufacturing environments.
It should also facilitate some level of protection against current pricing in international mussel markets, limiting the impact on the contribution mussels make to Sanford’s performance.
He said that should the Christchurch plant close, the firm will attempt to redeploy as many staff as possible within Sanford’s other plants and fleet operations throughout the group and assist the process of identifying alternative employment options within Christchurch.
The site in Christchurch became part of Sanford’s operations with the acquisition of Pacifica Seafoods in 2010. Sanford employs 232 people at the facility.
