CANBERRA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Development of the world's largest prawn farm in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) is on track, according to the company undertaking the project.
Chris Mitchell, executive director of aquaculture company Seafarms, said recent developments had put the 1.5 billion Australian dollar (1.06 billion U.S. dollar) project in a strong position.
"Project Sea Dragon is a staged 1.5 billion Australian Dollars development over seven years to create 10,000 hectares of ponds capable of producing 100,000 tonnes of high quality Australian black tiger prawns each year and we are extremely happy with its progress," he told News Corp Australia on Thursday.
"When fully developed, the project will employ more than 1,500 people and generate annual export revenues in the order of 3 billion Australian dollars (2.13 billion U.S. dollars)."
He confirmed that Seafarms had partnered with Japanese marine products company Nissui in the venture.
"Project Sea Dragon will be the first major aquaculture development in Australia of a global scale," Mitchell said.
"Both international and domestic support for the project continues to grow."
According to a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) report published in January 2015, Australia produced approximately 230,000 tonnes of seafood every year.
However, the country is a net importer of seafood, consuming approximately 345,000 tonnes every year, 66 percent of which is imported.
At the time the report was written, the annual value of Australian fisheries and aquaculture production was 2.4 billion Australian dollars (1.7 billion U.S. dollars), half of which is exported due to fetching a higher price overseas than domestically.
