Rodney Stevens
Yamba professional fisherman Troy Billin is renowned by chefs around Australia for his exceptional quality, fresh seafood, and now he has been recognised by the industry being named the best Primary Producer at the 2024 National Seafood Industry Awards.
The bi-annual National Seafood Industry Awards (NSIA) reward excellence in the Australian seafood industry; and showcase the industry’s value to the national economy, its professionalism, and its commitment to supplying the finest seafood in the world to local, national, and international markets.
The NSIA do this by recognising and celebrating the positive contributions of individuals, partnerships, businesses, and organisations towards maintaining a sustainable and profitable Australian seafood industry.
This year Troy Billin told the CV Independent the awards were held in Tasmania at the Seafood Directions Conference hosted by Seafood Industry Australia at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart on September 12.
The Primary Producer award is “presented to a seafood Primary Producer that has demonstrated excellence in the sustainable production of quality seafood through innovation in fishing or aquaculture practices, and that has contributed substantially towards a positive public profile for the seafood industry.”
In the final, Troy’s Yamba Fisheries business was up against Mures Fishing from Tasmania and Sea Harvest Pty Ltd from Western Australia for the prestigious award.
The accolade comes after Troy was named the 2024 Sydney Fish Market Seafood Excellence award winner in the Primary Producer category in April, securing him a spot in the National Finals.
When he was announced as the winner in front of the biggest companies and names in seafood in Australia, Troy said he was stunned.
“I was pretty surprised, and it came as a big shock,” he said.
“I didn’t think I was going to win…I’d been announced as a finalist but a couple of the other businesses I was up against, Mures from Tasmania and Sea Harvest from Western Australia are massive players in the industry, they’re huge.
“I thought I had no chance up against those businesses.”
A life-long ocean lover, Mr Billin always wanted to become a professional fisherman and in 2002 when the Cape Byron Marine Park was established, he moved to Yamba where his passion for the industry has seen his business, Yamba Fisheries, catching mud crabs and fish thrive.
Yamba Fisheries sells direct to top restaurants in Brisbane and Sydney, with mud crabs making up 70 to 80 per-cent of their catch, plus fish.
“Predominantly Mud Crabs are one of the main seafood species I catch, and I also catch Sea Mullet, Sand Whiting, Bream, Flathead, Mulloway, Spanish and Spotted Mackerel and other ocean fish species with hand lines,” he said.
“I’ve got a few restaurants I sell direct to, and we send products to the fish markets in Sydney and Brisbane, plus we sell to some local wholesalers and retailers, Naeco Blue in Grafton and Northern Rivers Seafood in Ballina.”
Yamba Fisheries has a name across Australia for premium quality, fresh, sustainably caught seafood, something Troy has developed techniques he employs to ensure his product is exceptional.
“I try and give the customers the best quality product I can,” he said.
“When I catch a product, I look after it as well as I can and I have a good reputation with a lot of buyers for that, and a lot of it (the name Yamba Fisheries has earned) is because of a lot of work I do in the industry to create a positive profile for the seafood industry.
When he isn’t hard at work fishing, Troy said he is passionate about ensuring a sustainable industry and environment for both professional and recreational fishing enthusiasts, a part of his life that contributed to this win.
Troy said he had recently joined the board of Ocean Watch Australia, he is a board member of the Professional Fishermen’s Association which is transitioning to a new peak industry body, he is on the research advisory committee for the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
“It’s all about sustainable practices so we are here for the future generations, we try and promote our industry as being sustainable and we look after the environment that we work in,” he said.
A new facility that has been approved by Council will begin construction in the coming months to become Yamba Fisheries new headquarters.
“It will be a seafood depot and packing plant with cold storage where we can distribute our products from and I can also do some value adding to our products,” he said.