The seafood industry operates in a diverse and dynamic environment and although the volume produced in Australia is small by world standards, the quality of our product and sustainability of our practices are globally recognised. For the seafood industry to continue to be a world leader in seafood production and quality there must be an opportunity to learn from each other and plan for the future.

The role of Seafood Directions is to provide an opportunity for stakeholders of the seafood industry to review and discuss priority issues and future planning and development.

This need is supported by key stakeholders of the seafood industry, as is evident by the number of delegates previously attending the biennial conference.

Despite several successful Seafood Directions conferences there is a need to look at how the conference is run and what its focus is. There is a real need to engage the whole supply chain sector from fisher to consumer.

The success of the national seafood industry leadership program has seen a growth in support from industry and increased competition for places in the progam.

The seafood industry, will always face challenges where leadership is needed. Currently, many fisheries are facing the very real crisis of declining access to fishing resources. Investing in Leadership, and the assocaited networks and cross stakeholder understanding is seen as vitally important for all sectors to be able to contribute to debate, drive change and address challenges in order to enable the fishing industry to reach its potential.

The National Leadership Program has had considerable support from industry throughout the years from sponsorship of key events and in-kind contribution to provision of guest speakers. These areas of support and the ongoing funding as built a leadership program with significant reputation throughout the industry. Rural Training Initiatives is aware that this reputation needs to be protected and enhanced through the delivery of a 2008 program.

As mentioned in the background section, it is critical that the momentum for leadership development is not lost during a 'fallow' year.

Why have a framework?
Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) is a key factor for increasing the productivity, competitiveness and sustainability of Australia’s primary industries. To achieve this however, primary industries RD&E investment, which exceeds $1 billion annually, needs to be focussed, efficient, effective and carried out collaboratively.

Primary industries RD&E across Australia is a very complex web of research providers and investors and includes the 16 Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) as well as the state and territory governments, CSIRO, universities and private providers. While these independent operators have strong interconnections and much has been done to improve collaboration, there is still considerable fragmentation and duplication.