Aquaculture Challenges

South African Abalone Farming

Abalone History

• Coastal communities utilised the resource for over 10 000 years (shell middens)

• Commercial harvesting started in the 1950 and 1960’s

• TAC Introduced in the late 1960’s

• Wide scale poaching and resource collapse started during the 1990’s

• Abalone reseeding research started in the 1990’s

• Abalone farms started popping up between 1995 and 2006

• Almost no legal wild harvest

• Illegal harvest around 2500 tons per year

• Aquaculture stabilised around 1200 tons between 2008 and 2015

• New farms and expansions coming online between 2015 and 2025

• Industry projected at 3000 tons by 2025

Total production by farm (t)

2019

Farms Can Live Dry Total

Abagold 300 100 50 550

HIK 60 80 10 150

Aquafarm 30 30 0 60

Romansbay 250 100 20 370

I&J 50 300 50 400

Viking 40 150 10 200

Wild Coast 0 100 100 200

West Coast 30 10 0 40

Jacobsbaai 40 10 10 60

Doringbaai 30 20 0 50

Kleinzee ranching & others 5 0 0 5

Atlantic 20 80 0 100

Total 855 900 250 2000

Estimate 2025

Farms Can Live Dry Total

Abagold group 500 200 300 1000

HIK group 100 150 50 300

Aquanion 300 200 0 580

I&J Group 100 300 50 450

Sea Harvest Group 150 250 20 420

Wild Coast 0 150 150 300

Other 20 20 20 80

Total 1120 1170 570 3000

Major Challenges – Existing farms

Market Access

ZAR volatility

Electricity

Labour

Nature

Major Challenges – New Farms

Available Land / Water

Legislative Framework

Capital

Technology

Patience

Tips and Tricks – Investors and Business

Product and market

Production Cost

Technology and Infrastucture

Partners

• Government

• Technology

• Investors

Realistic Timeframe