Spanner crab of Queensland largely exported live to South-East Asia and in 1999 a quota system was put in place for the Queensland fishery, which now stands at 1800 tonnes a year. According to the authority most of the majority of the spanner crab catch is still shipped live to export markets, leaving dead and reject crabs to be sold domestically. The spanner crab of Queensland was of poor quality because of decades of public perception that the spanner crab was inferior to the blue swimmer and mud crab.
As a consequence the fishermen and fishmongers got low price on selling these crabs. In 2002, Neville Rockliff tasted his first spanner crab. e couldn’t believe how sweet the meat was, yet was flabbergasted at how cheap it was. According to Neville there is tremendous potential in the crab, so much so that he put his money where his mouth was and spent millions buying and developing a stake in the fishery.
He so much hooked with the taste that he bought Ceas Crabpak, a spanner crab fishing and processing company in 2003. His plan was to ensure the best crabs were kept for processing into meat, rather than the live export trade.
