All Australian Standards developed by FRDC will demonstrate a net benefit and therefore have an overall positive impact on Australia’s seafood industry. This means that all FRDC developed Australian Standards must provide a value or benefit that exceeds the costs to the seafood industry with associated action plans to implement continuous improvement to ensure this is met.

Public, consumer and stakeholder confidence is vital to the well-being of Australia’s seafood industry.

Australian Standards are not legal documents. However, when a government references a standard in legislation, it becomes mandatory. An Australian Standard does have status and is recognised as being a credible document. Usage of the names included in the Australian Fish Names Standard is not mandated in Australia but is listed in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code - Standard 2.2.3 - Fish and Fish Products as an advisory note (see https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2011C00569)

Standard fish names removes confusion, strengthens consumer confidence, creates market efficiencies and consistency, underpins effective fisheries monitoring and improves management of food fraud / food safety.

The use of standard fish names achieves outcomes that are consistent with the aims of industry and governments:
1 Improved monitoring and stock assessment enhances the sustainability of fisheries resources.
2 Increased consistency and efficiency in seafood marketing to improve consumer confidence and industry profitability.
3 Improved accuracy and consistency in trade descriptions enables consumers to make more informed choices when purchasing seafood and reduces the potential for misleading and deceptive conduct.
4 More efficient management of seafood related public health incidents and food safety through improved labelling and species identification reduces public health risk.

Within the next decade, the AFNS must:
• Be all inclusive including increased stakeholder awareness
• Improve the AFNS database to ensure all data is current
• Meet stakeholder expectation
• Be world’s best practice
• Be a national benchmark for sustainability
• Be part of an ongoing continuous improvement processes
• Be a transparent process to create trust

Although a $2.7 billion industry the Australian seafood industry has traditionally lagged behind other primary producers in its ability to centrally organise, market and represent itself to consumers, regulators and the general public.
The formation of Seafood Industry Australia is a big step in correcting this anomaly.

There remains a strong need for seafood producers(fishers and Farmers) to understand the current seafood market,supply chain and advances in product development and marketing.

A further marketing symposium will provide industry with an update on the current trends and approaches, it would further benefit industry by:

1. Reinforcing with industry how effective marketing works.
2. Inspire participants with practical examples of effective marketing they coud apply at a sector, category or company level.
3. Showcase examples of effective marketing for domestic demand, export, trade and industry goodwill.
4. Identify and explain new marketing channels and the opportunities they present.
5. Demonstrate how to incorporate a systematic approach to developing a brand.
6. Identify meaningful and distinct consumer markets throgh market segmentation

It is clear the priority audience for the symposium are fishers and farmers looking to improve their profitability.

To meet the projected seafood demand by 2030 Australian aquaculture needs to increase its rate of growth in both production and competitiveness (FRDC 2016). Extensive R&D efforts have been invested in more than 90 aquaculture species over the last five decades in Australia. Nonetheless, fewer than 10% of these species have reach recognized production in either tonnage or value. Presently, only Atlantic salmon, tiger prawn, barramundi and oysters are considered as major aquaculture species in Australia. This highlights the need to identify possible gaps in our research and extension activities, and the barriers to successful commercialization of new aquaculture species.

Importantly, research interest alone is unlikely to be sufficient to drive aquaculture production of targeted species. The observed limited production or lack of investment in new species may indicate differences in new species preferences among the relevant stakeholders, i.e. scientists, consumers, traders, investors, producers, policy makers and regulators. These differing perspectives should therefore be analysed to provide a better understanding of the conditions required for successful development of a new aquaculture species.

The project proposed here - “Auditing research effort on aquaculture species and industry adoption for production growth” - is consistent with national priorities and strategies of both FRDC and CSIRO. Under the FRDC’s Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) Plan 2015-20, one of three national priorities is to develop new or emerging aquaculture growth opportunities with the aim of delivering RD&E to help promote the establishment of one or two species at commercial scale production. To address this priority the FRDC has established the New and Emerging Aquaculture Opportunities (NEAO) subprogram. Similarly, CSIRO Aquaculture has continuously emphasized the importance of delivering innovative impacts that transform aquaculture production in more-sustainable ways. This implies either removing identified barriers for current aquaculture species or investing in targeted strategic R&D on carefully-selected new species in collaboration with industrial partners.