Australia’s seafood industry is calling on consumers to switch one meal a week to Australian seafood, as the local lobster industry reels from the impacts of the nation’s trade tensions with China.
Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) has suggested that if one per cent of the population committed to changing one meal a week to locally sourced Australian seafood – such as prawns, salmon or snapper – it would see more than 250,000 meals of Australian seafood on the table.
“For the festive season we’re asking consumers to change just one protein-meal to Australian seafood like our stunning rock lobster, a few dozen fresh oysters, a big, beautiful bowl of prawns or replace a roast with a whole, baked Australian fish,” said SIA CEO Veronica Papacosta.
“This could mean the difference between a fisher making or missing a mortgage payment, and a boat heading out of harbour or spending another week docked.”
“Communities in lobster-producing areas, like Apollo Bay, VIC and Geraldton, WA are seeing greater access to Australian rock lobsters than they have in the past, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there will be cheap lobsters at every fish counter across the country.”
Seafood Trade Advisory group chair Nathan Maxwell-McGinn said the bulk of lobsters that were heading to China were live, the preference in the local Australian market is more towards fresh, cooked lobsters.
“We are working hard to cook and chill as much lobster as we can, but it’s just not infrastructure we currently have,” said Maxerll-McGinn.
“We have a processing issue, and we are trying to pivot and fix it as fast as we can, so we can get our lobsters onto Australian family tables in time for Christmas.
“Our major supermarkets account for 60 percent of at-home seafood consumption sales. As drivers of volume, we’d love to hear from them about how they can help us get more Aussie lobsters onto tables.”
The SIA is also calling on support from the foodservice sector to access live Australian lobsters through their wholesale distributors and “know how to handle the cooking more easily than home consumers”.
The seafood sector is among the growing list of sanctions against Australian products in the Australia-China trade tensions, including the wine sector, which will see charges from 107.1 to 212 per cent imposed on wine in containers of two litres or less.
SIA launched the first national flagship brand for the seafood sector in November, to drive a generational shift towards increased seafood consumption.
