The business he began more than 30 years ago continues to operate as Tru Blu Prawn Farms, and the industry he helped to pioneer is today worth more than $70 million farm gate value nationally.
Taking on prawn farming was a high-risk venture – capital intensive with hazards that ranged from a cold snap or disease, to hungry cormorants and human poachers. While Frank Roberts was known as something of a gambler, when he made a decision he stuck by it, be it right or wrong.
And he had decided that prawn farming was the industry for him. It didn’t matter that everyone said it wouldn’t work, or that there was no long line of experienced farmers to learn from. More than once his crops were wiped out and he faced financial ruin, but he pressed on, ultimately becoming recognised as a prawn farming authority.
A long time member of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, Frank Roberts helped to lead the way for others, sharing his hard won expertise. Always the innovator, this included trialling the export of live Kuruma Prawns (Marsupenaeus japonicus) to Japan, which ultimately proved unviable.
Many others have taken up prawn farming since Frank Roberts launched his new venture in the early eighties, and the industry has attracted significant government supported research to overcome the challenges. With improved genetics and production processes, the industry he helped to found has become one of the most productive and sustainable prawn farming systems in the world.
The business Frank started all those years ago continues to operate as Tru Blu Prawns and is now owned and managed by son Alan Roberts and grandson Brad Roberts who have inherited the family passion for prawn farming. Both Alan and Brad take great pride in producing a premium quality product and are striving towards the continuous improvement of their production and processing methods to ensure that the Tru Blu product is of the highest possible standard.
The 25 hectare farm produces a single annual crop of approx. 150T between February and May, targeting larger size Black Tiger Prawns, predominantly 16-20/lb and bigger, in both fresh and frozen formats.
