Hatchery

Thirty years of experience has allowed Abagold to perfect the process that is now used in our world class hatchery to produce the spat that is required for our operation.

Abagold’s hatchery provides a solid foundation for the cultivation of its abalone and consists of four distinct nodes. Due to the recent expansion and improvements, the hatchery now produces sufficient volumes of spat to allow the operations to select only the strongest and best-suited animals. Abagold uses only premium selected wild abalone as broodstock for spawning.In the larval rearing area, fertilised eggs are hatched and nursed for the first week before they are transferred to the hatchery, where settled animals spend the first few months feeding on diatoms. Animals are weaned onto macro-algae in the nursery and grown to spat size.

The hatchery produces excess spat every month – this way only the best animals are picked out to ensure the superior final product that Abagold is renowned for.

Grow-out Farms

Abalone is farmed on four aptly named farms in Hermanus: Sea View, Amaza (waves), Bergsig (mountain view) and now also Sulamanzi (clean water). Prime selected animals from the hatchery are placed on Sea View where expert staff provide them with the best possible care. Once the animals are of a suitable age and size, they are moved out to Amaza where the intermediate sized animals are housed. Finally, the animals are settled on Bergsig to complete their growth phase.

Sulamanzi houses as much animals as the other three farms combined, but in 9 isolated units for biosecurity reasons.

Combined, the three farms comprise 13 hectares and house 4 000 land-based tanks that require more than 10,000 tons of pumped seawater every hour!

Processing

In August 2006 Abagold commissioned its own state-of-the-art canning and processing facility. Since then it has established itself as a quality benchmark for canned and dried abalone from South Africa. The facility is managed with the help of a comprehensive Quality Management System, which includes HACCP compliance. This underwrites the high food safety and quality standards that our customers have come to expect of all Abagold products. Product development that leads to exciting new value added products is continuously in process. The innovation in this area has been ongoing for years. Substantial development has taken place in the processing of the product as well as with a combination of sauces and brines to further enhance the delectable flavours and candy heart that Abagold is so renowned for.

Support Functions

Abagold’s head office with its support functions ensure that its 240 employees are well looked after. Qualified and experienced employees ensure the professional administration of finances, training and human resources.

Through Adult Based Education and Training (ABET), many Abagold employees have achieved great successes in persevering with their studies.

Abagold embarked on a heightened health and safety awareness program through focused training and are now registered to present NOSA accredited training to staff in-house.

In addition, Abagold employees’ health is taken care of by a qualified sister in the company’s in-house clinic.

Technical

The technical team is responsible for the uninterrupted delivery of bulk services to all production units, the processing facility and head office. The team is made up of qualified specialists, artisans and assistants, and is headed up by an engineer.

Marketing and Sales

Abagold’s marketing focus is on establishing and managing its premium brand in the international and domestic seafood markets and positioning its products at the top end of these markets.