Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture wins big at Sydney Royal Easter

TWO years ago owners of Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture were making tough decisions to keep their business afloat after being hit hard by white spot disease.

BIG SPLASH: Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture’s Darrell and Debbie Herbst and owner Noel Herbst won big at the Sydney Royal Easter Show’s food awards. Picture: Gizelle Ghidella

TWO years ago, the owners of Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture were making tough decisions to keep their business afloat after being hit hard by white spot disease.

This month, in their comeback year to production, the family-run operation won Champion Prawn and the Champion Aquaculture Product Perpetual Trophy at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Although it’s not their first win in Sydney, Debbie Herbst said the achievement was extra sweet.

“This is our first year back in production,” she said.

“That’s why we are super proud we took out the gold, then the aquaculture champion, and the trophy.”

Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture has 96 hectares of ponds under water at Woongoolba on the Gold Coast, and is on track to produce 850 tonnes of tiger prawns this year.

In the past, they have reached 1000 tonnes, but the white spot disease in 2017 halted all production at this location.

They were one of seven farms along the Logan River impacted by the imported disease, which is highly contagious and affects all decapod crustaceans.

The Herbst family owns another farm, at Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, that was purchased in 2012, which allowed them to keep supply through to their customers while they recovered.

“The (disease) wasn’t from any fault of or our own, it wasn’t our own doing, this was something that had made its way to Australia,” Debbie said.

“Getting up and running again, we took baby steps day by day.

“We have implemented certain things to stop occurrences that have happened in the past from happening again.”

The prawn farm was established on Noel Herbst’s cane property in 1986.

He is Debbie’s father and current owner of the business and it’s his job to personally select the produce to be sent to Sydney for judging.

There is a simple reason the family chooses to put their prawns up for judging: pride.

“If you create a product you want people to eat, you need to be proud of that product,” Debbie said.

“This is our way of showing that we think our product is good enough.

“If we win the awards it certainly makes us feel proud of what we produce.”

Sydney Royal Easter chairman of judges, John Susman, said the competition aimed to support industry growth.

“Sydney Royal is the benchmark of quality for farmed prawns and Sydney Rock Oysters in Australia, and the competition aims to support the continued growth of the industry through its judging process,” Mr Susman said,

“With only a 5 per cent variance between judges, this year’s judging has been one of the strongest fields we have seen in many years.”

When the Rural Weekly spoke to Debbie, she was among the chaos of the Easter seafood rush.

Their business ramps up this time of year and they can see up to 10 tonnes of product “walking out the door each day”.

They supply to large supermarkets and wholesalers, including Costco and Woolworths, and also sell direct to customers on farm.

“People can come down here and purchase prawns at farm-gate prices,” she said.

“We think this is important.

“It’s a good little trade.

“It proves our product must be worthwhile for them to keep coming back and buying.

“At Christmas we don’t even have fresh supply — it’s all frozen, and everything is ordered months in advance.

“It goes to show the loyalty customers have to keep coming back for the same product.”

Late last year, Queensland Fisheries Minister Mark Furner announced his plans to make Queensland the “aquaculture capital of the world”.

Debbie said they were heartened by the government’s words.

“The fact they came out and said that, it’s just awesome,” she said.

“Because yes, it was very quiet for a long time.

“Finally, they have seen the potential … we support them trying to drive the industry, improve it, and get new people into the business.”

Sydney Aquaculture awards

- Tathra Oysters won Champion Sydney Rock Oyster.

- Tathra Oysters has been a consistent winner at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, winning several champion awards over the past 18 years, as well as the inaugural President’s Medal in 2006.

- This was the first year the judging was held live at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, allowing patrons to gain an insight into the judging process for Sydney Rock Oyster and Australian grown prawn classes.