Fish and Chips Awards 2021
Throughout 2017-2019 FRDC established the Fish and Chip awards as a way to create debate around seafood, raise its profile and use this as a vehicle to promote information about sustainability, fisheries management and the R&D being undertaken to underpin it. The approach worked very well generating more than 90,000 votes, hundreds of media articles and millions of consumer views of that media coverage.
There is a need to ensure the base developed in the first three years is not lost and that SIA continues to build on it and centralise consumer-facing activities under the industry’s brand, Great Australian Seafood.
SIA will continue to deliver retailers, consumers and media information on the sustainability of Australian seafood, underutilised species, FishNames, CoOL, along with any other relevant R&D and extension.
In this initial year of SIA management, we will investigate the opportunities for sponsorship of the program and develop a timeline for a self-sustaining model.
There is also a need for SIA to demonstrate how an activity such as foodservice and consumer awards can deliver tangible results. To do this, SIA is looking to capture consumer opinion, engage retailers and measure behaviour.
Final report
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation had run the Fish and Chip Awards since 2017. In 2021 the awards were transferred to Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) to run under the industry’s consumer-facing brand Great Australian Seafood and renamed the Great Australian Fish and Chip Awards.
This report provides an overview of the transfer of the awards to SIA and delivery of the Great Australian Fish and Chip Awards in 2021 and 2022.
Shared science and Indigenous knowledge to support fisheries capacity building in Torres Strait
e-fish - An Integrated Data Capture and Sharing Project
Southern Bluefin Tuna: Changing The Trajectory
National Seafood Industry Leadership Program 2018 - 2021
FRDC has developed the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan. The plan details the areas of investment for the industry and provides direction regarding the leadership requirements for the Australia seafood industry. Relevant sections of that document state the following:-
“All sectors of Australian fishing and aquaculture need strong, effective, connected leadership to respond well to the challenges and opportunities before them...Having strong leadership capacity will generate strong fishing and aquaculture communities that are productive, profitable and resilient to change, therefore people development remains an important focus for RD&E...projects include the National Seafood Industry Leadership Program"
The above indicates the ongoing need and support for the NSILP 2018-2020. Additionally, although the NSILP 2015-2017 project is yet to be fully evaluated, there is data indicating a significant increase industry need for the NSILP. This data includes 70 unsuccessful applicants over the course of the project time frame; applicant nominators requesting the reason for unsuccessful application responses and; extremely high caliber applicants who should be accepted into the NSILP being ‘rejected’ over two consecutive years. However, the greatest need remains the ongoing succession of the industry and the need for ongoing opportunity to skill-up and build the knowledge of the individuals who will step into leadership roles.
The NSILP 2018-2020 will address the needs discussed above through providing skill development in key leadership areas such as inter-personal communication, team building and strategy planning. The NSILP will also build industry sector understanding through ensuring an annual diverse participant cohort and seek guests and program speakers who reflect industry breadth and deliver addresses that reflect the range of the industry. The NSILP will raise the positive profile of the industry through building professionalism amongst the participants and through the delivery of a number of participant addresses to the industry.
SafeFish 2018-2021
Maintaining and enhancing market access for Australian seafood is critical for future industry growth. SafeFish makes a significant contribution to this by carrying out three types of projects:
1. Food safety incident responses. The SafeFish partners come together during each incident to provide industry and government with immediate technical information required to respond to the incident. Subsequently, technical input is provided to update policies for prevention of similar incidents and respond to them should they recur. Appropriate technical responses reduce the impact of food safety incidents and ensure better outcomes for future management.
2. Technical input to inter-government consultations on food regulations and market access. It is essential for the Australian seafood industry to participate in consultations such as Codex to ensure that proposed new, or modified, regulations are pragmatic and cost-effective for the Australian seafood industry. It is far easier to influence standards under development than after they have been finalised. Similarly, it is essential for the seafood industry to stay in close contact with Food Safety Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) when domestic food safety regulations are reviewed.
3. Proactive research, risk analyses and training. The safety of Australian seafood is not negotiable in domestic and international markets. Over recent years SafeFish has conducted many activities to assist the industry anticipate and minimize food safety risks. The objective of the activities has always been to identify and mitigate risks before they cause a problem, or to grow knowledge to enable us to improve our risk management in a cost effective manner.