The growth was most pronounced in the final two months of the year, says Chief Executive Tim Pankhurst.
Up to the end of October export growth was tracking at about 3 per cent but increased demand in November and December pushed the growth to over 20 per cent for those two months and lifted total growth for the year to 6.6 per cent.
“A significant part of this growth was from Greenshell™ Mussel exports as new season supplies became available. Three hundred tonnes of mussels were shipped to Korea in December compared with 97 tonnes in the same period in 2014. Total exports to Korea grew by 11.6 per cent last year,” he says.
Despite economic uncertainty in China, exports to China grew by 14.9 per cent. Exports to the United States also showed strong growth of 12.2 per cent.
“These results are very heartening and are a testament to the work of the many players in our industry - from those who go out every day to fish and farm, to the people employed in processing and preparing our product for export and those who market our products to the world.
“The long term outlook for New Zealand’s seafood industry is bright as discerning consumers around the world are increasingly looking for high quality, sustainably harvested seafood. New Zealand seafood ticks those boxes.”