THE WORLD IS EWAN’S OYSTERBY: KEVA GOCHER 26 SEPTEMBER 2011

Above: Sydney rock oysters at the Narooma Oyster Festival, NSW Picture: Ray

Strang

Signature Oysters: Media

T ravelling the world to eat at oyster bars might seem like a dream job but it’s serious

research for a young shellfish grower from NSW.

Ewan McAsh will use a Nuffield scholarship to advance his local shellfish industry and create regional branding for native Sydney rock oysters.

He says he’ll leave the family’s farm and oyster outlet to pursue the rarest of assets.

“Knowledge! A Nuffield scholarship is an unbelievable opportunity,” he said.

“As a business and a farm owner, I doubt I would have ever taken the

time to travel the world, look at other farms, and other sales operations, so it is going to really open my mind and look at my business in a different perspective.”

The Nuffield scholarships were awarded over the weekend in South Australia, and the group is this week touring that state’s wine and other farm industries to develop a perspective on farm marketing and operations.

Mr McAsh farms oysters at Batemans Bay, and operates an oyster bar at Burrill Lake, NSW.

He says the seafood delicacy needs a story for consumers to value it more highly.

He says his family enterprise is in expansion phase to grow more oysters on the Clyde River at Batemans Bay Bay. as it aima to triple production to 150,000 dozen oysters a year.

The McAsh family is also augmenting the business with direct sales of the shellfish from an oyster bar that sells their own grown oysters to customers at three times the price achieved from wholesale sales ($1.50 versus 50 cents).

Ewan McAsh says he wants to study the Boston and other US and Canadian oyster bars, as well as see how the oyster is sold by growers in coastal Europe’s oyster bars in Spain and France.

Picture: Keva Gocher