Angels Oysters sees organics grow its export markets to Asia

EYRE Peninsula’s Angel Oysters set for export growth to Asia with clean, green branding.

Business: Chef Martin Boetz and Angel Oyster's Zac Halman in the waters off Coffin Bay. Mr Halman and his team regularly host chef tours at their farms.

EYRE Peninsula seafood company Angel Oysters wants to grow its Asian export market by more than tenfold under its deal with meat and seafood specialist Mulwarra Export.

Company owners and Smoky Bay locals Zac and Kady Halman say the deal was part of an extensive new growth plan for the premium oyster company.

This plan includes a likely listing on the ASX in the second half of this year with a capitalisation of around $25 million.

The couple says the success of the company they started in Smoky Bay seven years ago was spearheaded by a decision to pursue the certified organics oyster market and exported product was now selling at a 40 per cent premium.

Add that to the company’s appetite for buying up smaller family run businesses scattered throughout the Smoky Bay and Coffin Bay region and Mr Halman said there was clear potential to revolutionise the state’s fragmented oyster industry.

“Angel is in a unique position, the oyster industry in Australia and specifically SA is still in its infancy and extremely fragmented, made up of family run businesses,” he said.

“Angel has identified, and is now starting to execute, the opportunity to aggregate a number of these smaller businesses into one large dominant oyster producer in the industry.”

He claimed the company was well positioned to become “Australia’s largest producer of fresh, clean, green, organic and sustainable oysters”, with premium product already being served in restaurants from China to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Now backed by outside investors PRB Capital, Angel Oysters claimed its expansion plans were well underway, including design work started on a new export facility on existing land in Coffin Bay that would reduce costs and increase export sales.

Mr Halman said the company’s streamlined export processes meant oysters harvested on a Monday could be on a plate in some of the world’s top class restaurants by Wednesday.

Angel currently only sells about 5 per cent of production to Asia but the new export model aimed to see this rise to 70 per cent.

There was also potential for local job growth on the back of more than $5 million injected into the business from two rounds of capital raising.

“We have farms across Haslam, Smoky Bay and Coffin Bay, and as we develop we’ll need to introduce jobs across these areas with a view to double staff numbers as we grow,” Mr Halman said.

And there was a clear focus on marketing the “clean green SA oyster image around the world”.

“SA has a great international reputation for its high quality produce, we have developed a business to provide reputable oysters with the organic certifications,” Mr Halman said.