Rock lobster to be offered at prices not seen South Australia in decades

It’s a great year to pick up a Christmas seafood bargain, but it points to deep issues in our industry according to seafood legend Michael Angelakis.

Michael Angelakis with South Australian southern rock lobsters.

Southern rock lobster will be available this Christmas at prices not seen in living memory.

Lobster producer and exporter Ferguson Australia and SA supermarket chain Drakes have teamed up to offer the seafood delicacy at $75 a kilo this festive season, a discount of at least $50 a kilo off the usual price.

And while the deal is terrific news for consumers it points to the tough times currently being endured by the state’s southern rock lobster fisheries, squeezed on all sides by the COVID crisis and an escalating trade war with China.

Seafood industry legend and State Government food and wine ambassador Michael Angelakis, who helped to broker the deal between Drakes and Ferguson, said the plan would at least keep some income coming in for those on the decks and in the wheelhouses of our lobster boats.

Mr Angelakis said, in his opinion, South Australia’s southern rock lobster was probably the best lobster in the world.

‘We haven’t seen prices this good for decades’. Michael Angelakis.

“It’s because of our cold water,” he said.

“And we haven’t seen prices this good for decades.”

Mr Angelakis implored South Australians to get behind their commercial fishers after what’s been an incredibly tough year.

“When farmers have a drought and they get all the help in the world,” he said.

“Nobody stands up when the fishers are doing it tough and says, ‘hey, let’s cancel fees, let’s reduce payroll tax, let’s do whatever we can to help them’.”

Mr Angelakis said that, in real terms, the seafood industry hadn’t experienced any major growth in 20 to 30 years and that he believed the only way forward was more investment in aquaculture.

“Fishing for the market is no longer the only option of growth,” he said.

“The only real growth sector is aquaculture, and we’re not being aggressive enough. That is the future. The balance of scale involves aggressively farming for the market, and we’ve got everything we need right here to make that happen.”