After being forced to scale back December harvests due to bushfires, the pandemic and ill-timed rain events NSW oyster farmers are busier than ever... and ready to embrace this year's Christmas rush.
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00:00It's been a challenging few years for oyster farmers on the New South Wales far south coast.
00:10The 2019-2020 black summer bushfires and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic really impacted their ability
00:17to sell and harvest oysters.
00:20We've also seen repeated ill-timed heavy rainfall events in the lead up to Christmases over
00:25the past few years.
00:27What that does is it forces estuaries like this to close.
00:31Oyster farmers are very organised.
00:32They pull out as many oysters as they can ready to sell in the lead up to Christmas
00:36but it still impacts their ability to sell more if they can.
00:40That's why this Christmas is looking so good and so promising.
00:43There's an air of confidence in the oyster farming industry this year because seasonally
00:49things are turning out perfectly.
00:51Touch wood.
00:52We've certainly heard that from oyster farmer Shane Buckley.
00:55He was based here at Wapungo Lake and his business is just there behind me, Wapungo
01:00Rocks.
01:01The lead up to Christmas, so all of the back end of November and then through December,
01:07you've got a lot going on in the city.
01:09So there's people having Christmas parties and end of year parties.
01:14So there's a lot of oyster demand even in the lead up to Christmas because people are
01:21out and about, the weather's nice again and a very festive time.
01:26So a lot of people eating oysters through that time and then Christmas itself, the two
01:31weeks in the lead up to Christmas are just nuts.
01:34Whatever you've got, you can sell.
01:36There's certainly a lot of oysters to be sold and a lot of interest amongst consumers not
01:42only here locally in Wapungo and along the far south coast but in the cities like to
01:47restaurants in Sydney and Canberra and Melbourne.
01:51Christmas is certainly one of the busiest time of year for oyster farmers but Easter
01:55is around the corner so it's going to be a very busy few months ahead for oyster farmers
02:00in this region.