THE TASMANIAN ABALONE INDUSTRY

Tasmania’s abalone fishery is the worlds largest abalone resource supplying over 25% of total annual global production of wild caught product.

The abalone industry is Tasmania’s most valuable wild harvested marine resource and one of the state’s largest export earners.

Eight hundred and thirty three tonnes of live weight abalone will be harvested during 2021 and over 95% is exported, principally to the north Asian markets of China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan. Most of the annual production is exported in live form with the balance available in canned, dried, frozen or vacuum packed formats.

The Tasmanian abalone industry provides employment via the harvesting (divers and deck hands), processing (factory workers, truck drivers and administrators), marketing and exporting (managers and consultants) and service industries (mechanics, technicians, welders and boilermakers).

The industry has a long history of providing many areas of Tasmanian commerce with vital investment capital. As such, additional employment is gained via an increasing diversification of investment outside of the fishing industry in a multitude of areas. Agriculture, viticulture and wine making, retail, wholesale, property development, tourism and aquaculture as well as a diverse range of other businesses and enterprises all share in the profits generated by the abalone industry.

Fundamental and substantial restructuring of the abalone industry in 1991 has permitted and encouraged non-diving investors to directly purchase abalone quota units and as these continue to “change hands” the number of Tasmanian’s sharing in the success will only increase over time.

Thanks to the foresight and responsible attitudes of industry participants, Tasmanians will all benefit from a sustainable fishery that generates valuable export income and directly and indirectly employs a significant number of Tasmanian’s. Additionally, profits are re-invested back into the Tasmanian economy in many diverse ways creating further employment and generating new wealth throughout the state.