THE SOUTHERN
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1986
MARCH, 2018
SEYMOUR EXPO WRAP UP
BULL AND ON FARM SALES
PAGE 12
www.farmernews.com.au
SEEDS, FERTILISERS AND PASTURE
PAGES 14-16
PAGES 17-19
‘Musselling’ in on the Asian market PETER Lillie wants to expand Victoria’s mussel market, confident the future of the industry lies beyond Australian waters. With 90 hectares under production off Mount Martha, Mr Lillie hopes to have his new processing facility approved for export before the end of 2018. Without export rights, he is worried the domestic market will stagnate. “We need to be exporting – we need to be growing 1000 tonnes,” he said. “We have the water and the infrastructure and to justify our capital expenditure we need to develop this (export) level of production.” In Europe, each person consumes 15 times the mussels eaten per head in Australia. “There is a big export demand,” Mr Lillie said. “We can cultivate as many mussels as we can sell, and can easily gear up to produce more.” Mr Lillie grows around 300 tonnes of mussels a year – selling through his Bay Sea Farms logo. Targeting mainly the
We need Australian’s to eat more mussels, or we need to send our mussels to a country that will. - PETER LILLIE, BAY SEA FARMS
BY RHYLL McCORMACK rmccormack@ nemedia.com.au
wholesale market, with a small farmgate outlet at Mornington Pier, Mr Lillie said it was a mistake to assume Australians ate a lot of mussels. “Capturing a share is hard,” he said. “People just presume you take your mussels in to a market, and someone buys them. “But in Melbourne the reality is just not that simple - the mussel industry is well established in Australia, and Victoria is producing more than demand.” In Victoria, Mussel larvae - or spat - are spawned and reared in a hatchery before being attached to ropes which are dropped vertically
into the water, supported by a horizontal rope backbone and a series of buoys. Mr Lillie has around 70,000 metres of vertical growing line in Port Phillip Bay. Mussel ropes are placed out in the winter, and are harvested for consumption between 78-85mm in size. Mussels filter food from the water, and do not require additional feeding – meaning they have almost no impact on the ocean around them. Although Mr Lillie is now trying to secure an international market for his overflowing produce, it hasn’t always been as easy. Years ago, there was enough natural spat for farmers to source directly from the ocean; but in 2006, just as Mr Lillie signed onto his Port Philip Bay lease, the area was hit with declining numbers.
Continued page 3
MUSSEL KING: Peter Lillie is in the process of having his seafood approved for export because, until Australians eat more mussels, he says the potential for market expansion lies in Asia. PHOTO: HAYDN
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