Oyster company sale creates one of Australia’s biggest shellfish enterprises

A South Australian aquaculture company has expanded south, taking on one of Tasmania’s biggest oyster growing operations.

Cameron of Tasmania has sold its farms and hatcheries to Yumbah Aquaculture’s South Australian farm based on the Eyre Peninsula, for an undisclosed sum believed to be in the multi-millions. 

The sale follows the development of a joint venture oyster spat hatchery near Port Lincoln during the height of the Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) outbreak in Tasmania.

Cameron family to stay involved

The Cameron family were pioneers in Tasmania’s oyster industry, starting in the aquaculture business back in the 1970s.

In more recent decades they’ve suffered some big setbacks, including major losses after the Dunalley Bushfires in 2013 and oyster deaths from the Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome outbreak in 2016. 

Cameron of Tasmania’s Ben Cameron, will stay on as general manager and it was expected that no jobs would be lost.

Mr Cameron said the two companies were a great fit and it was all part of a bid to diversify and secure the future of both businesses.

“This is about business synergies and strengths,” Mr Cameron said.

“The joint vision is one of strength around species diversity.”

Mr Cameron said over the past few years they have had a look at the weaknesses in the business and the best alternative was to work with a partner they have had previous experience with.

“You see it with a lot of different agriculture where you are mono-cropping … you can be very, very good at doing that job and then through no fault of your own [things like] disease [can happen].

“If you had diversity of income you could ride those things out … you don’t have to have staff cuts.”

Yumbah and Cameron connection already cemented

Yumbah Aquaculture started out as an abalone company but has since ventured into oysters.

When the POMS virus hit Tasmania spat producers were no longer able to sell their product to South Australia.

Yumbah Aquaculture and Cameron of Tasmania began working together in 2016 when the two entered a joint venture to establish the Yumbah Hatchery at its Port Lincoln site. 

The Port Lincoln site now provides two-thirds of SA’s oyster spat.

Ben Cameron said working with Yumbah was something they wanted to get done as soon as they could.

“When the POMS virus hit Tasmania we were unable to sell our oyster spat to SA so we made a promise to our growers over there that we would relocate and we looked up and down the Eyre Peninsula looking for a suitable partner — and that’s where we met Yumbah.”

Yumbah has slowly started to expand more into the oyster industry and in 2020 the Port Lincoln hatchery received $250,000 in state government funding to help with infrastructure construction, including new nursery sheds and raceways, grow-out ponds and associated equipment.

Yumbah chief executive David Wood said bringing Cameron of Tasmania into the Yumbah portfolio was a natural progression for the two companies.