Aquaculture needs own minister, says report

Blair Ensor/The Marlborough Express

OPPORTUNITY: A government commissioned report sees great opportunity in the aquaculture sector.

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Annual aquaculture sales could rise more than six-fold if space and flexibility are boosted for marine farms, a government technical advisory group (TAG) report recommends.

The report, from a seven-member TAG chaired by former National Party Fisheries and Maori Affairs Minister Sir Douglas Kidd, is being publicly released today.

The TAG was established earlier this year to provide the Government with recommendations on how to kick-start the sustained development of aquaculture.

After a moratorium on new aquaculture permits in 2001, industry growth has stalled since 2004 reforms, with no new aquaculture space created in the past five years.

According to industry body Aquaculture New Zealand, the process was made too complex, uncertain and expensive, with a lack of incentive for both marine farmers and regional councils to invest time and money.

The TAG notes an Ernst & Young report, commissioned by Aquaculture New Zealand for government ministers, estimates the aquaculture industry could be worth between $1.7 billion and $2.2b annually by 2025. It has annual sales of about $360 million now and Aquaculture NZ has a target of growing this to $1b by 2025.

Ernst & Young says, however, aquaculture could be worth up to $2.2b if basic business practices are followed, further water space is made available and there is flexibility for farm conversions in existing space.

"Evidence for this potential also exists in pre-2001 domestic growth rates and international growth rates [of] about 8 per cent per annum,'' the report adds.

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley told The Independent the TAG's report was practical. He said marine farming was seriously underperforming because farmers did not have access to the space that should be available to them. The Government needed to ensure more space was made available and marine farmers were able to use it in the most efficient way possible and with the greatest return.

"And [then] I think the sky's the limit in terms of returns to New Zealand,'' Heatley said.

The TAG report recommends a greater role for central government in the industry, which is largely overseen by regional councils, through the creation of a Minister for Aquaculture and the establishment of an aquaculture agency within the Ministry of Fisheries.

It says this would provide policy direction through an Aquaculture Strategy and consistency through national standards.

Aquaculture currently cuts across a plethora of departments and ministers, meaning that it has fallen through the cracks or seen decisions by committee.

 There are too many cooks and no recipe, the TAG argues, leading to the "proverbial camel we have today''.

Heatley says the Government is keen on one lead agency focused on aquaculture, to provide a "one-stop shop'' for marine farmers, together with government policy leadership for the sector.

"We want much more central government leadership in aquaculture because we acknowledge ratepayers, through regional councils, can't or won't pay for the work and therefore it's not getting done,'' he says.

The report also proposes an aquaculture fund to be paid for through a "modest'' annual levy of $100 to $200 per hectare on near-shore marine farmers, which would raise up to $1.4m a year.

The TAG says the basis for charging open-ocean farmers, which comprise 57 per cent of all marine farms, remains to be determined.

Heatley says in principle a levy is understandable, given that there is a public cost to marine farmers using public space.

The TAG also advocates:

*Ministerial powers to insert provisions into regional coastal plans.

*A more flexible approach to planning through flexible zoning.

*A central register of aquaculture consents provided for in legislation cross-linked to the Personal Property Security Register.

*Regional coastal plans specifying that an aquaculture consent term should run for at least 20 years - currently, they vary from 10 to 35 years - and:

* The removal of statutory prohibition on aquaculture outside Aquaculture Management Areas.

"If our recommendations are implemented, we are confident that this will restart New Zealand's aquaculture industry and put it back onto a path of sustainable economic growth,'' the TAG says.

It estimates consent applications could be received from day one of the new regime, with the first new space approved within a year.

Heatley says significant Resource Management Act changes are likely, with certainty around timeframes sought for marine farm applicants.

Meanwhile, the TAG says its proposed aquaculture regime is unlikely to affect or be affected by the review of foreshore and seabed legislation.

 Heatley says the Government is committed to the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Settlement, whereby Maori receive 20 per cent of any new aquaculture space. Submissions on the report close on December 16 with cabinet decisions likely early next year.