Moulting Bay Pacific Oysters and Mussels

St. Helens, Tasmania

Company Objectives 

Moulting Bay Pacific Oysters and Mussels’ (MBPOM) long term objective is to be the lowest cost producer and largest supplier of premium grade oysters and mussels in Australia.  The company aim to produce and sell 1,000,000 dozen oysters per annum providing an annual return on investment of at least 20%.  MBPOM aim to export at least 50% of production volume.

By adopting GP Graders’ technology, MBPOM aim to set a new industry benchmark in terms of quality and production methodology.  The company seeks to differentiate itself as a low cost producer of premium grade product targeted at previously unpenetrated lucrative export markets. 

MBPOM’s short term aim is to improve current post harvest methods.  Improvement along the lines of introducing a more gentle method of handling shellfish, cleaning of the shell, and optical and weight grading.  This will provide the corresponding effects of lowering unit costs, reducing spoilage, and increasing prices and margins. 

Project Goals 

In the short term the company will reallocate its labour resources in order to increase harvest yields.  Staff will be moved from the packing shed to the farm and used to increase harvest volumes.  It is anticipated production will increase from 153,000 dozen presently to 350,000 dozen by 2003/04 with the same numbers of staff.  With the speed and accuracy of the proposed new grading technology what currently takes 4.5 full time staff an 8 hour day to manually grade could be achieved by 3 staff in 2.22 hours.  Therefore the company increases its grading and packing capacity by almost four times with the adoption of the new technology.