Seafarms’ Project Sea Dragon prawn farm enters voluntary administration after $13.9m ruling

Seafarms Group has pulled the plug on the planned Project Sea Dragon prawn farm in Kununurra after a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors adjudicator found the project owed $13.9 million to contractors. Announcing the board’s decision to enter voluntary administration on February 14, Seafarms Group said it was no longer in the best interest of the company to continue to fund the project. “The adjudicator determined that a total amount of $13.9 million (excluding GST) is payable by ProjectSea Dragon in respect of claims for money owed following suspension of work on Project Sea Dragon in December 2021 and later termination of contracts in April 2022,” the statement said. The aquaculture company started construction on Project Sea Dragon in mid-2021 at Legune Station, where it planned to develop one of the world’s biggest black tiger prawn operations, producing 130,000 to 180,000 tonnes a year. The company had expected to produce its first harvest of premium black tiger prawns by late 2023, with the Northern Territory Government spending $56 million on roads for the project. But a number of hurdles, including a $135 million budget estimate blowout in October 2021, saw investors on tenterhooks before works were officially suspended in March 2022 after the project was found to be “unviable”. Contracts were then terminated in April 2022, with a Seafarms’ ASX investor briefing at the time saying the company “remained committed” to delivering on the promise of Project Sea Dragon.