Maintaining and enhancing market access for Australian seafood is critical for future industry growth.
SafeFish makes a significant contribution to this by:
• Researching and providing technical input to international multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations such as Codex
• Providing research and technical support to food safety incidents to minimise trade disruptions, including supporting appropriate risk communication
• Identifying emerging food safety issues and determining appropriate research and technical responses that will protect Australia’s continued access to markets
• Conducting research on seafood hazards to support risk management decisions e.g. sulphites in canned abalone, cadmium in prawns, parasites in finfish.
• Facilitating national and international expertise networks (including networks between researchers, industry and regulators)
• Developing and supporting food safety research and diagnostic capabilities e.g. marine biotoxin laboratory, norovirus and hepatitis A virus testing
• Supporting productive partnerships between industry and regulators such as Biosecurity Australia and FSANZ to enable utilisation of research findings and to facilitate “considered” responses to food safety issues.
Funding is required to undertake research on priority issues, supportcapacity, infrastructure and capability that has been developed through SafeFish since 2010. The ASCRC estimates the benefit/cost ratio for SafeFish is 11 to 1 with benefits accruing far wider than just to the industries involved. Ensuring the safety of seafood and sustaining access to markets provides significant public benefit.
This application is to bridge the gap to assist the transition between the ASCRC winding up and the FRDC implementing the recent changes to the PIRD Act that will enable ongoing industry investment. Several industry sectors (Abalone Council of Australia, Southern Rocklobster Limited, & Oysters Australia) have also committed funding for SafeFish using their respective FRDC IPA funds.