NSW DPI has released the oyster production figures for 2016/2017.
To interpret the results it is necessary to look at how the production results are presented. The results are quoted for small, medium and large oysters in terms of dozens of oysters. In addition, the results are separated into Sydney Rock oysters, Pacific oysters (from Port Stephens only) and triploid Pacific oysters (from other estuaries).
If you add the results together, it is like adding different sizes of pears and apples all together. I have used conversion figures available from DPI to convert all the results into bags of oysters. This gives a better indication of the biological mass of oysters produced. Thus a bag of small Sydney rock oysters (130 dozen per bag) can be compared to a bag of triploid Pacific oysters (40 dozen per bag) and give a more meaningful result.
Total oyster production between 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 has barely changed. There was a 5% increase in Sydney rock oyster production which was offset by a drop in Pacific oyster production. In Port Stephens the situation was more accentuated (2% drop) as this was one of the estuaries affected by the drop in Pacific oyster production.
The production results are available on the DPI website for the last 17 years. The lowest result was in 2013/2014. Production has improved but it is still less than half the sustainable production figure of 120,000 bags given in the Oyster Industry Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy.—see the attached graphs for both NSW and Port Stephens production.
The good news for the industry is that the farm gate price of oysters has consistently gone up more than CPI. An increase of 6% was recorded for 2016/2017.
Oyster Production graph 2016 2017 NSW.pdf
Oyster Production graph 2016 2017 Port Stephens.pdf
