To Our Customers,
First let me take this opportunity to thank you. We deeply appreciate every oyster company that works with us to supply them and the only reason we get to make oyster seed each season is because you purchase it. So a sincere thank you. We understand the trust that goes into that decision, we take it seriously, and we do our best to do right by every order that hits our books.
We had a good season in 2024, record breaking in fact, selling the most seed we ever have in a single season. It was not however, our easiest production season in the hatchery, so we are doubly satisfied that we were able to achieve a production goal in a difficult production year, testament to our staff, and our ever evolving techniques. Even with that, we continue to strive for that lofty hatchery goal to fulfill every order, in full, and on time. Maybe this coming season…
It has been a bit of a ride the last 5 years, with pre-covid weather related production issues, the general chaos in the industry caused by the pandemic, and the recovery from that. I hope you have started to feel some stability in your companies as we have here now that those events are slipping farther into the past. This is a dynamic business for all of us and not only do we operate in a world of daily complexities but season to season as well.
Season to season, what has been wearing on us is inflation, and the cost of utilities, supplies, and for that matter labor, as all of our pockets are pinched, so too are our employees. In order to keep up with these growing costs, we have, with much consideration, made the decision to increase prices which we, to date, had been able to keep stable since before the pandemic. We will be increasing the price of R1, R1.5, and R2mm seed from $7, $8, and $9 to $8, $9, and $10 respectively. Our larger sized seed prices will remain the same. A full price list can be found on our website. We work hard to keep our prices stable for long periods so that is one variable our customers do not have to consider season to season, and we anticipate to be able to hold this price point for several years.
There is always the possibility of the next big weather event, or market disruption, but we are also seeing other change in our industry. Consolidation seems to be an eventual certainty in any industry and we may be seeing a wave of that in ours as we speak, the implications of which, I think will take some time to fully present.
OSH as a company was at a crossroads a few years ago, where we doubled down on our decision to remain an independent hatchery and focus primarily on seed production and ensure we do not compete with our customers. At that time we took steps to diversify the company in other ways by bolstering our research and development and aquaculture outreach, efforts, both to serve the interests of OSH, and that of our customers, by continuing to perfect our methods in the hatchery to increase seed supply and supply consistency, and to advocate for shellfish aquaculture in a grassroots way to support you all - the farmers. We remain committed to that customers first mantra and look forward to working with all of you in the coming years.
Sincerely,
Mike Congrove