THE lead up to Christmas is usually a frantic mix of shopping, cooking and finishing reaping, but spare a thought for prawn farmers who complete half their annual harvest in less than two weeks in an effort to satisfy our insatiable seafood demand during the festive season.
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At Gold Coast Tiger Prawns’ Mossman, Qld, farm, about 150 tonnes of prawns will have been harvested and freighted to Adelaide and along the east coast in the past 12 days.
Farm manager Jordan Hack said the Far North Qld location was selected specifically to cater for the Christmas rush.
He said the farm was restocked in June or July, with prawns taking about six months to mature and reach the 25-gram to 30g harvest weight. A total of 300t is harvested between November and January, with all sold fresh.
“It’s too cold on the Gold Coast to stock prawns in winter, but on this farm, the prawns are the right size by Christmas,” he said.
”They’re all black tiger prawns. The special thing about these prawns is that they’re domesticated stock. No other farm in Australia uses domesticated black tiger prawns, all their rootstock comes from the wild.
“These prawns are probably 6th generation. We’ve got our own breeding program, so it means we're not reliant on any wild-caught prawns. They grow faster, eat less, and have a better feed conversion ratio of about 1:4.
“We’re reaping the benefits – they’re all disease-free, and they definitely thrive in these conditions.”
