Page 71 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

where there’s lots of food drifting in the currents.”
Actually, ‘all’ OGA has done is reinvent the reef using cleverly designed abalone habitats that look like holey pyramids with the tops taken off – and neatly trademarked as ‘Abitats’.
ABALONE PREFER ABITATS TO ROCKS AND TANKS Early experiments with plastic barrels in Tasmania after his post graduate studies didn’t work out as well for abalone as the plastic baskets used to
grow oysters.
“I came back to WA and got to
know the abalone habitat really well working from Augusta to Esperance for 12 years,” he remembers. “I saw lots of areas where the conditions were perfect and whenever I went diving I’d always look for a rock, because that’s where abs grow.”
“So it didn’t take too much thinking that maybe if we chuck some abalone out in the ocean on some man-made rocks we could grow more...”
In 2009, Adams and his family raised capital for trials of various ‘rock’ designs and stocking densities, using juvenile abalone brought to Augusta from Peter Kestel’s hatchery in Bremer Bay.
Five years later, his team had perfected the Abitat and established its commercial sea ranch in Ngari Capes Marine Park.
OGA now has 10,000 Abitats forming 20 kilometres of artificial reefs, which have attracted huge numbers
of other sea creatures, including snapper, rock lobster and sea cucumbers.
Each Abitat has narrow openings to shelter the young animals as they grow while allowing water – and food – to flow freely into their hungry mouths.
“The Abitats have a decent surface area so we can grow lots of abalone together, and because they’re getting plenty of food we’re seeing fast growth and high survival rates,” Adams notes. “We’ve now got the aquaculture advantage
of being able to harvest those abalone at whatever size
we like all year round.”
THE BEST PROCESSING FACTORY $3.4 MILLION CAN BUY
In November 2017, OGA listed on the ASX and took on a few private investors, which gave it capital to grow production and hire 30 more people. Going public meant Adams had to learn to deal with ‘a lot of corporate types’, so he went back to university to do an MBA and bought a few suits.
“We’ve raised more than $20 million now and there are times you’ve got to get out of your wetsuit and into your business
Catch of the day: Brad Adams heads up the thriving family business.
BLUE SKY
“ We’ve raised more than $20 million now and there are times you’ve got to get out of your wetsuit and into your business suit to walk the shark tanks of Macquarie Street and Collins Street.”
suit to walk the shark tanks of Macquarie Street and Collins Streets,” he laughs.
The business has also had strong support from government and its local community. In return, OGA hired local builders and engineers to build its new
$3.4 million state-of-the-art processing facility in Augusta Boat harbour, which opened in October 2019.
“I’ve lived in Augusta most of my life, my kids go to school with the kids of the local mechanics, builders and engineers, so it’s important to hire locally for any development,” says Adams.
The new facility includes tanks for up to four tonnes
of abalone. When they arrive at the facility in Augusta the abalone are sorted by weight with a Marel grading machine, which also captures data to help OGA identify which parts of the reef are most productive.
“In food, data is everything right?” says Adams. “We know which abalone have grown to 110.5 millimetres and 250 grams during their three years on a particular reef area, and we can then plan our future seeding and harvests. It’s no different to broad acre
farming when you see really good stuff going 10 bags to the acre and other acres only yielding two bags.”
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS
OGA’s sustainability philosophy extends from the natural food of the reefs to the cooling systems in the facility, designed and installed by Dave Roberts and Project Engineering WA. The whole system is very low maintenance and low impact reports Adams:
“We’ve got state-of-the-art bio filters, an ozone system to sterilise outgoing water so there’s no risk of contaminants going to the ocean, and seawater for the tanks and cooling systems. Using seawater is cleaner, more efficient and cheaper than the fans used in most similar factories.”
There’s also a surprising eco-benefit: Adams explains the fuel for short boat trips to the Abitats could be carbon- offset by the abalone converting seaweed to a fixed carbon.
SELLING INTO ASIAN MARKETS AT $500 A KILO OGA will export up to 95 per cent of its product across Asia, working with marketing consultants in each area to develop sales networks.
ABOVE: Packaging for the OGA range, most of which is exported to Asia, was designed by local studio Dessein.
OGA is especially motivated to expand into China, where a kilo of wild abalone can fetch $100-500. Adams says the expansion was encouraged by one of OGA’s biggest customers, who reported sales were down in Hong Kong but that China was
a lot more open for business.
“The greatest thing about the free trade agreement is that it’s allowing us to market our product – previously the tariffs in some markets incentivised smugglers and many products lost their identity,” says Adams. “We have a chef who visits other chefs to show them how to cook our product because it’s a different size and needs to be treated differently than tank farmed abalone.”
“Having those close relationships with each sales destination is important and now the wild green lip abalone grown by OGA is considered one of the most premium abalone in the world.” ✷
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IMAGE: RUSSELL ORD