| Decision | Consent granted retrospectively Section 57D(a) Fisheries Act 1996 |
|---|---|
| Decision Maker | The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries and the Associate Minister of Finance |
| Decision Date | 18 March 2021 |
| Pathway | Fishing quota under the Fisheries Act 1996 |
| Investment | Overseas investments in fishing quota being the acquisition of:
|
| Consideration | Approximately $52,800 in total. |
| Applicant | Biomex Trustees Limited (as trustee for the Biomex Trust) Australia (100%) |
| Vendors | GLM7A quota – Nelson Mussels Limited New Zealand (100%) GLM9 quota – Robbie Denison and Robyn Denison as trustees of the Arelde Trust New Zealand (100%) |
| Background | The Applicant is a trustee of a trust ultimately owned by an Australian family which has been involved in the mussel farming and processing business since the 1970s, and is closely linked with what is now the MacLab business. This quota is used by MacLab to grow mussels for use in the extraction of compounds used in the nutraceutical industry (i.e. non-pharmaceutical food containing health-giving properties). MacLab owns and operates a number of mussel factories in the South Island, and a processing factory in Nelson. This is a retrospective consent relating to acquisitions of quota in 2007 and 2013. Both acquisitions were made under delegated authority by a director of the Applicant who has since left, and it is now not clear why consent under the Act was not sought at the time. Given the information provided, the failure to obtain consent appears to have been inadvertent. The acquisition of quota gave the Applicant a level of security of supply that resulted in it investing capital into the New Zealand business, which in turn resulted in processing of mussels and generation of sales revenue. Given the relatively small amounts of quota acquired and the benefits generated, the acquisitions were considered to be in the national interest. |
| More information | Gary Rountree MacLab New Zealand NELSON |