Years of Closures, Million in Losses: Oyester Farmers Stuck in Choppy Waters
Tim Aitken hasn’t paid himself in three years. It was in 2020 that he bought Mahurangi Oysters, shifting his career from agriculture to aquaculture in the hope of cracking New Zealand’s lucrative seafood industry.
But his cash cow has turned into a long-running exercise in patience.
“This whole farm here is full of oysters ready to go,” says Aitken, speaking to the Sunday Star-Times on a boat in the Mahurangi Harbour, about 50km north of Auckland. “Half of them [40,000 dozen]...
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