NZKS signs significant Government funding partnership

3 March 2025
NZKS signs significant Government funding partnership to accelerate the NZ
salmon sector
The New Zealand King Salmon Co. Ltd (NZKS) has entered into a significant funding
partnership with the New Zealand Government under the Sustainable Food and Fibre
Futures (SFF Futures) fund.
The programme is titled ‘Future Farming: A Blueprint to Accelerate Salmon Farming
in Aotearoa’.
Across its five-year duration, the ‘Future Farming’ programme will pilot the
technologies that will provide the ‘blueprint’ for substantive and sustainable salmon
farming growth in NZ, especially within new open ocean environments. The total
programme has an expected value of $29 million, with an investment by the
Government of up to $11.7m. This will be one of the highest-value investments made
by SFF Futures since the fund was established in 2018.
NZKS CEO Carl Carrington says, “Having the world’s first King salmon open ocean
aquaculture site at Blue Endeavour is a big responsibility – while we are confident it
will be successful, there will be some significant lessons learned along the way. This
funding partnership will enable us to share these learnings and build industry and
investor confidence”.
“With the NZ salmon sector poised to grow, the learnings from Blue Endeavour, and
the associated technologies, should accelerate the pace of development of the sector
and support this NZ Inc level blue economy opportunity. While this is a significant
partnership for our company, we also realise that to achieve our aspirations, we must
prioritise collaboration – with industry, government, iwi, suppliers, customers,
communities and beyond. The rewards for New Zealand of getting this right are
significant,” says Mr Carrington.



Images: Blue Endeavour concept pilot farm and pen design, courtesy of ScaleAQ – examples of some of the new technologies to
be part of the pilot.

The programme encompasses three critical workstreams:
• Blue Endeavour Pilot - in relation to open ocean aquaculture (OOA),
• Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) Pilot - in relation to freshwater
hatchery technologies, and
• Novel Breeding Strategies to improve fish resilience and breeding accuracy.
The successful deployment of these technologies in a pilot but commercially relevant
scale will demonstrate their utility to the wider NZ salmon farming sector. It will provide
the business confidence for other companies to deploy similar technologies to unlock
significant growth, while also supporting the long-term viability of the industry against
climate-change-exacerbated challenges.
This programme will contribute to the Government’s plans to strategically grow the
aquaculture sector and to deliver export value.
NZKS will recognise the funding provided by the Government over the tenure of the
agreement in accordance with the applicable accounting standards. No funding will
be recognised in the financial year ended 31 January 2025.
As communicated on the 28th of February 2025, NZKS will release its financial results
for the year ended 31 January 2025, prior to market opening on Thursday 27 March
2025.

Authorised by:
Board of Directors of New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited

Further enquiries should be directed to:

Carl Carrington, Chief Executive Officer, 021 141 2856
carl.carrington@kingsalmon.co.nz
Grant Lovell, General Manager Aquaculture, 021 246 0858
grant.lovell@kingsalmon.co.nz
Ben Rodgers, Chief Financial Officer, 027 527 5636
ben.rodgers@kingsalmon.co.nz

For interviews, photos, video and any other enquiries please contact:
Monique Hatfull, Head of Relationships and Communications, 027 621 8853,
Monique.hatfull@kingsalmon.co.nz