Sealord looks at new hoki options from sending whole fish to China to more NZ local consumption
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Dominion Post] by Hamish McNicol Sept. 25, 2014
It's cheap, versatile and plentiful, but no-one in New Zealand wants it.
Hamish McNicol went onboard a Sealord hoki trawler in the Cook Strait, as the company seeks to turn the domestically unpopular hoki into an everyday alternative to salmon.
HOKI is one of the cheapest seafood options available at the counter, and with about 150,000 tonnes earmarked to be caught this year, it is also one of the most readily available.
But Kiwi palates have grown up on inshore fish like snapper and tarakihi, which is much easier to access than the deep-sea hoki, lurking about 500 metres below the surface.
As such, domestic hoki demand is negligible, with the flaky fish considered "somewhat underrated" in New Zealand. For Nelson and Auckland-based Sealord, however, the plan is to turn hoki, the country's second most valuable export, into one day being the white fish alternative to salmon....
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