Great South is working to understand how best to support a range of new aquaculture projects across the region.
General manager regional strategy Bobbi Brown shared a report to council’s Infrastructure and Growth Committee on Tuesday.
“There has been quite a few developments in recent times, which is quite exciting.”
Aquaculture was a key industry identified in the Beyond 2025 workstream and Great South has been working with stakeholders to work through the issues.
Part of the work includes an investigation to establish if there are any challenges related to the industry and infrastructure necessary to support it. The report is due to be completed by mid-2026.
“There is quite a significant scale up of salmon production in the region,” she said.
Ngai Tahu Seafood’s Hananui project is moving through the fast-track process with a decision due in early August, proposing 14,440 tonne of chinook salmon within five years.
Great South is working in partnership with the company to understand the logistics needs to ensure Southland businesses, workforce and people benefit as much as possible.
“This open ocean salmon project will be the ‘first cab off the rank’ for the region, so will trigger major infrastructure investment.
“This also needs considered alongside wider economic happenings and industry developments, particularly in the Awarua area,” the report said.
Sanford is currently producing 5,000T of salmon and are still considering the future of two of their fast-tracked applications (hatchery plus open ocean salmon farm Project South).
Fjordland Group (previously Impact Marine), are proposing a land based closed system at Ocean Beach where between 10,000T to 30,000T salmon are farmed.
They are moving through their process as much as they can as they wait for the outcome of some approvals from MPI (to import Atlantic salmon eggs).
Ocean Farms are continuing to progress their open ocean salmon farm proposal focussing on innovative ocean technology.
They are looking at a significant sized 475ha salmon farm off the southeast coast of Rakiura possibly producing up to 20,000T of salmon by 203 5which could realise revenue of $711M and 243 jobs.
Greenwave Aotearoa has gained consent for a trial site at Rakiura which looks to farm three seaweeds including macrocystis, bladder kelp. They are looking to utilise new arctic technology which processes at sea.
Kelp Blue and Awarua Runak are still preparing to lodge consent for a significant area of water between Bluff and Rakiura for seaweed farming.
Their product makes a biostimulant which they now have in the market based on production from Namibia and initial market interest is good.
South Port is about to begin its long-term strategic planning process and considering their role in aquaculture (alongside wider economic and industry needs).
Bobbi said they are key contributors to the infrastructure investigation currently underway.
Great South has also completed its aquafeed investigation which shows what ingredients could be grown in Southland soils.
She told the committee both the Ministry for Primary Industries and Invest In NZ have been supporting the project, “which gives us confidence that they are going to understand what are requirements are.”
She said aquaculture is still relatively new and there are often misconceptions about what the industry is about, so marketing will play a big part of the work going forward - in helping promote careers.
“It’s not just driving boats - there is actually science, technology roles and it’s very exciting.”