Australian rock lobster fisheries, similar to their New Zealand counterparts, are coming under increasing pressure to forfeit access to fishing grounds and to shares of available yields as a consequence of a well organised and resourced marine protection lobby and opportunistic political decision making. In recent seasons the situation for the Australian lobster industries has been made more difficult because of Federal Government marine protected area agendas and difficulties in brokering direct export to the lucrative China market. Industry capacity that might otherwise be committed to improving reputation and efficiency and promoting economic growth and investment has instead been diverted to protecting existing access and utilisation opportunities. The rock lobster industries will directly and indirectly benefit from cooperative approaches to current and emerging challenges (the most recent being biotoxin events for example) and from collaborative efforts to agree and implement growth and consolidation strategies based on good science and credible decision making. The 'sharing of knowledge' which is a feature of each Lobster Congress draws greater numbers of industry participants into agreed work plans and creates wider understanding and awareness across the industries as to he need for responsible fishing, strategic responses to external forces, and wise and credible political lobby and positive profiles within the wider community.

The Australian Rock Lobster Industry faces continuing challenges relating to market access, human resources, fisheries management, cost of production and quota implementation.

Issues that need to be addressed include:

1. Continuing the line of successful Congress meetings since 1999.
2. Examine and offer solutions to competing demands of resource allocation.
3. Build on the implementation of common national and international marketing strategies commmenced in Hobart 2005.
4. Address and offer some solutions to common boat costings such as Crew Availability, Fuel costs etc.

The WA FRAB has identified market intelligence and information as a priority for 2006-07. The Australian Southern Rocklobster industry has identified the need to "consider big picture market forces shaping the global food markets'" in the management of profitability of the industry, and the WRLDA has identified the need to develop long term strategic marketing plans.

To catch trends in global lobster markets, Australian lobster industries must have information on their market position relative to each other and other exporting nations. They see the need to increase
understanding by stakeholders of pressures, drivers and economic trends in the global lobster industry.

To achieve this, the unique Global Lobster Market Database (GLMD) developed by WRLDA in 2004 now must be expanded to include the other Australian lobster industries. This will allow them to identify trends in markets enabling development of predictive models by industry, improving the ability of industry to “fish to the market”. Information currently collected does not include all the markets targeted by
Australian lobster producers.

The development of a larger scale, more detailed lobster database, containing information pertinent to all Australian lobster industries, as well exchange rates and market intelligence, will allow the Australian lobster industry to become a significant and more powerful competitor on the world market, addressing needs and wants of consumers rather than being dictated to by commodity markets.

The catches of Australia’s rock lobster fisheries are at or near their maximum level. However, adding value to the rocklobster catch will ensure continuing and improved returns for industry. This can be achieved by way of enshrining maximum quality on delivery to the processing factories, maximum survival of live lobsters shipped to overseas destinations, perfect cooking regimes for the portion of the product processed for this market either in Australia or overseas, the maximum recovery during processing, and a continuous maintenance and upgrading of handling conditions, maintaining and improving health and safety conditions, and having respect for community welfare concerns.

The purpose of the Subprogram is to work with industry to identify the opportunities and priorities to enhance products and profitability and to assist industry meet these challenges. It then seeks to identify and support the research needed to provide answers to permit industry to grasp these opportunities, in a cost effective and timely manner. The outcomes of the research are rapidly provided to industry in a form that allows industry to capture the benefits of the research for the Australian industry. Of special importance is the need for the Subprogram to co-ordinate research effort, eliminate duplication of applications and ensure that projects are relevant.

The global market for lobsters now demands Australia to compete effectively in these markets, and the subprogram assists in ensuring that there is capacity to achieve this to allow the industry to maintain and improve its competitive advantage.