Another blow for Australian company wanting to build the world's biggest prawn farm

Seafarms is behind the ambitious Project Sea Dragon which planned to build the world's biggest prawn farm in northern Australia.

Those plans were put on hold back in April after eight years of development.

The project was declared "not financially feasible" and "unviable in its current form" after an internal investigation by the company.

On Friday, Seafarms informed the ASX its chief executive and executive chairman Mick McMahon was standing down effective immediately.

The company also said the extraordinary general meeting it had scheduled for June 20 would no longer be required.

Mr McMahon has also resigned as a director.

The company's largest shareholder and board member Ian Trahar will replace Mr McMahon as non-executive chairman.

Mr McMahon was formerly managing director of Inghams and was appointed Seafarms' CEO late last year.

Lagoons are already in construction for Project Sea Dragon at Legune Station, a cattle property near the Western Australian border, southwest of Darwin.

The 178,870 hectare property has been part of the AAM portfolio, via its Pastoral Development Trust, since 2018.

The NT Government has already invested millions in the project hoping the project would produce its promised 1500 jobs.

Seafarms hopes to still proceed with a pared back version of the prawn farm if it can maintain the interest of investors.

Seafarms had wanted to build a 10,000-hectare black tiger prawn pond project across 10,000 hectares in an almost $2 billion project to produce 6000 tonnes of prawns per year.

The company had ambitious plans to scale up and produce more than 100,000 tonnes of prawns every year.

The NT Government invested more than $56 million in building roads to support the project including upgrades to Gunn Point Road, an access road to the Point Ceylon, Bynoe Harbour site and upgrades to the Keep River Plains Road to ensure year round access between Kununurra and Legune Station.

The company also said there could be lower priced international competitors who would take their intended market share.

Seafarms said it was still intending to deliver the project but needs to lower the cost of production.

It will also continue to supply fresh and frozen, cooked product to customers from Queensland.

It has a hatchery, at Flying Fish Point and grow-out facilities, including 148 ponds covering 160 hectares across three farms in Cardwell and Ingham, and a processing factory in Cardwell.

Seafarms said its Legune Station operations would remain on hold until they completed a farming pilot, which depended on further investment, and could take three years to develop.

Start the day with all the big news in agriculture! Sign up below to receive our daily Farmonline newsletter.