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Grant for Arno Bay tuna expansion

Media Release | 14 May 2008

Clean Seas Tuna at Arno Bay will receive a $485,000 State Government grant through the Regional Development Infrastructure Fund.

The grant was announced today by Minister for Regional Development Karlene Maywald.

"Clean Seas Tuna is expanding its tuna breeding operations and this grant will upgrade the existing electricity supply to the company's onshore hatchery," Minister Maywald says.

"Clean Seas has achieved a world breakthrough by being the first company to produce fingerlings in its hatchery, successfully closing the life cycle of the Southern Bluefin Tuna.

"This has the potential to revolutionise aquaculture and lead to a huge increase in the production of Bluefin Tuna.

"The upgrade will be a major boost for the aquaculture industry on the West Coast and the State Government is pleased to facilitate the expansion."

Minister Maywald says Clean Seas is aiming at an annual production of 10,000 tonnes, with a workforce reaching 240 full-time employees over the next five years.

She says this expansion in production is possible because hatchery produced Bluefin Tuna are not governed by strict Australian wild catch quotas and there are no trade barriers for their sale into the major markets of Japan, China, the US and the European Union.

Minister Maywald says the Regional Development Infrastructure Fund increases investment in strategic areas of regional infrastructure that support job creation, investment, exports and economic growth. 

Since 2002, more than $18 million in RDIF money has supported projects that have contributed an estimated $680 million in total investment to the State and created an estimated 2,700 jobs.