Our Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) are famous for their superb taste, texture and freshness and for reliability of supply all year round.
The taste reflects the environment in which the oysters are grown; the beautiful Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
Our very special Paroa Bay farm has a sandy bottom, and no competition from any other oyster farms. Paroa Bay is open throughout the year because of its unique pristine location. There are few closures due to rain fall and. importantly. we can supply oysters throughout the summer months because of our open ocean cooler waters. We can also supply blast-frozen half shell oysters for maximum shelf life and quality.
Our Waikare farm produces fat, succulent oysters most of the year round.
The taste reflects the environment in which the oysters are grown; the beautiful Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
Our very special Paroa Bay farm has a sandy bottom, and no competition from any other oyster farms. Paroa Bay is open throughout the year because of its unique pristine location. There are few closures due to rain fall and. importantly. we can supply oysters throughout the summer months because of our open ocean cooler waters. We can also supply blast-frozen half shell oysters for maximum shelf life and quality.
Our Waikare farm produces fat, succulent oysters most of the year round.
How we get oysters to you
1. We catch and grow them
Oysters are what are known as "broadcast spawners" meaning they release eggs and sperm (they are hermaphroditic) into the water and the result is tiny oyster spat that settle and grow. These tiny spat settle on the thousands of bundles of sticks we put out on our marine farm. The sticks are kept in a bundle while the spat grow to protect the ones in the middle against the many sea creatures that find baby oysters delicious.
Once they are of a size where they can put up a fight, we take all the sticks and put them out on the farm individually. The oysters then happily grow all year until they are a nice size for eating.
2. We harvest them
We then harvest them by taking the oysters off each stick (by this stage they can really put up a fight so we have to wear protective clothing), separating them, grading them, washing them in seawater and transporting them to our factory. The little ones get put in mesh bags and put back on the farm to grow.
3. We prepare them for you to eat
Our highly skilled factory team work very hard each day to ensure all our oysters are opened, processed and packed to the highest food safety standards required by our Risk Management Programme.
Check out this video from Northland Inc about aquaculture up here in Northland (you can see one of our oyster farms at 3min35sec)