Aquaculture New Zealand says it wants showcase the opportunities that exist for careers in the farming of mussels, oysters and salmon. (file photo) Photo: 123rf
The multi-million dollar aquaculture industry has received funding for a strategy to boost its workforce, as it is revealed there are hundreds of staff vacancies across the sector.
Aquaculture New Zealand's action plan to build a national workforce has received $210,000 from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's sector workforce engagement programme.
The goverment's Aquaculture Strategy set a goal of growing the industry's annual sales from more than $600 million to $3 billion by 2035.
Aquaculture New Zealand chief executive Gary Hooper said the funding boost would accelerate the sector's strategic workforce plan in a bid to reach that goal.
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"Aquaculture employs over 3000 Kiwis in regional communities around New Zealand, we predict we will need double that number of workers by 2035.
"Right now, we have a significant shortfall of at least 500 vacancies across the industry."
The funding was announced at the industry's annual conference in Nelson today, and Hooper said it would help to implement priority actions quickly.
The strategic plan aims to address education and skills gaps, understand perceptions, map career pathways, and future-proof the workforce.
Hooper said it was an exciting time to be in aquaculture.
"We want to showcase the opportunities that exist for careers in the farming of mussels, oysters and salmon."
Across the top of the South Island, nutraceutical company MacLab farms green-lipped mussels which are turned into high-value marine extract products at their manufacturing facility in Nelson.
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Chief operating officer Scott Gillanders said the company employed about 80 people across its aquaculture and processing divisions at the height of the season.
But it had become harder to recruit staff, Gillanders said.
"The landscape has absolutely changed over the last two years and certainly this last year has been tougher than previous years, so we have really had to rethink what we do in terms of recruiting people, it's absolutely been one of our biggest business challenges."
He believed it was due to fewer international visitors on working holiday visas, staff shortages across all industries, and a competitive labour market.
"As time moves on, we are getting into more advanced products and we are dealing with more challenges in our industry and we need more skilled people so it is not just about getting people, it's about getting people with the right skills, or developing those skills."
Justin Carter is a co-chair of the Nelson Tasman regional skills leadership group, which helped to develop the national action plan.
Carter said the industry had lofty goals.
"Moving forward, we are going to have to be really collaborative with how we work together - government agencies, industry, iwi and the community - to make sure that we identify what roles are needed and work with the tertiary providers and Te Pūkenga around vocational education pathways, so that we can ensure we have a resilient workforce supporting that industry."
The group identified aquaculture as a priority industry across the top of the South Island.
"For Nelson Tasman and for Te Tauihu in general, aquaculture is important to us and it's a really big deal, it is a big employer and there is a significant amount of aquaculture that happens in this region."
Regional skills leadership groups around the country will be working with the aquaculture industry to grow the workforce.