The impact of COVID-19 has resulted in New Zealand seafood company Sanford Limited proposing closure of its Tauranga, New Zealand fish processing plant, the company announced last week.
Closing the plant, it said, is the result of a pair of factors: Less processing due to lower fish catches as a result of COVID-19, and new seismic strength requirements that the building does not meet. Sanford added that the closure would result in the loss of 65 jobs.
“We are very sorry to have to take this path," Sanford Limited COO Clement Chia said in the announcement. "Until very recently we had been planning a strong future for our Tauranga team. We had installed a second processing line at the end of last year, but in 2020 our fish processing arrangements were not only hit by the impact of COVID-19 but we received the results of seismic engineering reports showing that the site was not viable in the long term.”
While the company did have plans to consider rebuilding or relocating the operations, COVID-19 has complicated the plans. Despite the setback, some of the operations of the plant will continue, Sanford Chief Executive Volker Kuntzsch said.
“We would continue to unload seafood at the Tauranga site under the proposed arrangements and we plan to retain a number of staff in that area,” Kuntzsch said. “We are entering a period of consultation with our team and we will not know the final configurations until that process is complete.”
He added that Tauranga has been an important base of operations for Sanford, but the uncertain times have put it in a situation requiring tough decisions.
Sanford has operations at eleven sites around New Zealand, and has recently completed seismic surveys for all of them, following the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes which rocked the country.
“Most of its buildings will require some remedial work, but the company has no intention of closing any of its other New Zealand processing bases,” Sanford Limited stated.
According to the company, the commercial fishing industry is important to New Zealand – it is the sixth-largest export industry in the country with annual revenues of NZD 1.4 billion (USD 919 million, EUR 776 million).
Photo courtesy of Sanford Limited
