A Queensland Government-funded aquaculture project axed as part of the Newman government's public service cuts five years ago has been saved by a Hong Kong business.

Queensland Groper facts Called the Giant Grouper overseas

Called the overseas It is one of the world's largest reef fish

It is one of the world's largest reef fish It can live for up to 50 years

It can live for up to 50 years And can weigh up to 400 kilograms

It is the second time the world leading research unit has been rescued by a private company.

"We always thought we were okay at what we did, but the recognition that they came to Australia to buy this facility when Asia's been doing this for a long long time was really a strong recognition we've made progress in this field," Dr Richard Knuckey said.

The State Government axed the Queensland groper commercialisation project in 2013 when it was on the brink of commercialising its fish breeding system.

It was a big blow for Dr Knuckey, who had been working out how to breed the protected reef fish in captivity for 14 years.

"The aim was to diversify our current export of fish and into that live fish trade, which was just coral trout from Cairns," he said.

Scientists in Cairns said they have worked out how to breed gropers in captivity and that it will help stem the decline in wild groper numbers ( Landline )

After the unit's closure, Australian company FinFish Enterprises bought the operation but went into receivership less than three years later.

"Our farm was fully stocked but the operational cost escalated disproportionately and it just ran out of funding to kick us over that last hurdle," Dr Knuckey said.

"The fish could have been destroyed, luckily we managed to find an investor."

Aquaculture Technologies Asia (ATA) had just started buying fingerlings from the Cairns-based hatchery and stepped in to save it.

ATA farms giant grouper in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and with established customers in premium markets in Asia, the reassembled team is back at work, confident its future is now, finally, bright.

Manager of the Cairns hatchery, Dr Richard Knuckey is not displacing prawn farming, but rather here to grow a market for Queensland Groper. ( Landline )

"ATA wants production from Australia, which they see as a clean, green, quality product, to add it to their existing production because they're limited on how much they can produce in a very densely-populated place," Dr Knuckey said.

"The advantage we have here is we can produce fingerlings all year, whereas Taiwan has a three or four-month production time."

Australian giant grouper in demand

Queensland Groper is known as giant grouper in Asia, where it is highly prized as a banquet fish, and can fetch close to $200 a kilogram.

"One of our large breed stock [that] we gave away to one of the aquariums ate two lemon sharks — so it doesn't really hold back," Dr Knuckey said.

Dr Knuckey said chefs liked the firm, white flesh, and the skin was the star.

"It's got a very thick skin with a lot of collagen underneath," he said.

"In Chinese medicine collagen is really important for health and wellbeing, and when you're cooking it you can put a lot of heat on that skin without destroying the flesh underneath."

The Queensland Groper is a giant reef fish and is protected in Australia but is mostly overfished around the world. ( Landline: Pip Courtney. )

The Cairns hatchery and nursery, now named Tropical Finfish, will turn out a record 1 million fish this year, and has the capacity to double that.

As well as exporting fingerlings to Asia, groper or grouper is being trialled by prawn farmers in South-East Queensland who had their businesses devastated by the outbreak of white spot disease 18 months ago.

Serena and Murray Zipf said it was too early to tell if the sub-tropical groper would thrive in their prawn ponds.

"I've been in business aquaculture too long to make any promises yet but there's glimmers of hope at the moment," Mr Zipf said.

With the Gold Coast on the farm's doorstep, Ms Zipf predicted strong demand from restaurants catering to Chinese tourists who regard it as "the Rolls Royce of fish".

Ms Zipf was encouraged about future demand after a trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

"Seeing first-hand the degree of the environmental degradation, you really understand why they're looking towards Australia as a source of clean food."

"One of the farmers told us he had to steam offshore for five days before he could find something to catch out of the ocean," Ms Zipf said. ( Landline )

While Mr Zipf is pleased to have the chance to continue fish farming, he said he was unhappy the State Government walked away from its multi-million-dollar investment, leaving the intellectual property it paid for in private hands.

"I'm just a bit disappointed that the Australian taxpayers who've paid for the development of this technology the Australian farmers are sort of not benefitting," Mr Zipf said.

The Zipf family were hit by white spot when they were farming prawns, now they're moving onto groper. ( Landline )

Dr Knuckey has had a challenging, stressful and ultimately successful 19 years working on the giant fish.

After two near misses, he said he was relieved the research and more than $20 million of taxpayers money was not wasted.

"I kind of think of myself as Lazarus or a phoenix coming out of the flames again," he said.

"The vision was lost but the original vision was very strong, and I guess it's hard for governments to commit funding over that period of time, but this sort of research is really only able to be done initially through a government because of what needs to go in on the front end of it."

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