While the voluntary contributions to industry marketing is impressive, these marketing initiatives are unlikely to be sustained in the longer term without some form of compulsory levy. To secure on the key CRC legacies and capitalise on market research investments made by the CRC, FRDC and industry there is a need to support "first movers" who are actively attempting to establish compulsory marketing levies that will in turn support ongoing marketing efforts.

In December 2013, legislation enabling FRDC to collect and disperse compulsory marketing levies was passed. However, as there are likely to be many issues that will need to be resolved before an industry can satisfy the 12 principles and request the government to strike a levy. The ACA and APFA Boards have both passed resolutions to pursue a levy and have asked the Seafood CRC and FRDC to assist. FRDC have agreed to assist the APFA. The ACA is expected to be a far more complex process involving 5 producing states with inactive and active industry participants and will require significantly more resources and time to achieve success. the CRC Board has agreed to invest company "own funds" to support the ACA to undertake an industry stakeholder engagement process and prepare a levy submission that will satisfy the requirements of the Department of Agriculture and importantly the Minister who will make the ultimate decision as to whether a levy can be struck.

The ACA and APFA levy processes will be undertaken concurrently enabling efficiencies to be gained and lessons to be shared. All non commercial in confidence materials will be shared with other industry sectors who may wish to pursue a compulsory marketing levy in the future.

The Australian Wild Abalone supply chain education program is the direct result of Seafood CRC, FRDC and ACA investment over the past 5 years. While there has been significant progress there are several elements that need further research to support commercial roll out of the program. There is a need to gain more insight into the key decision makers and the factors that influence purchasing decisions within the
F&B sector in China and Hong Kong.

According to McKinsey and Co the trend in China now is to use social media platforms in lieu of formalised websites for both B2B and B2C communications and commercial transactions. Over the past three years the uptake of social media within China has been phenomenal (estimated 660million users accessing social media for an average of 4 hours per day). Understanding and utilising Chinese digital media will be a key marketing tactic in the future however very little is known about how best to use it. There are significant cultural and language barriers that need to be overcome so this project seeks to research, trail and evaluate two potential mechanisms to better understand how to incorporate Chinese digital media effectively into a marketing strategy.

The decision behaviour within the China based supply chain remains opaque beyond the importer and their immediate customers. There is a need to consolidate the relationships with the China and Hong Kong based importers and to work with them to penetrate deeper into the F&B sector, in particular to gain a better understanding of how and when purchasing decisions are made. The ways in which consumer behaviour influences those decisions also needs further investigation.

In addition there is a need to research the potential for the AWA program to be expanded into Japan and Singapore as an investment risk mitigation strategy.

The consultants selected to deliver the projects (KGA for project 2012/704 and China Policy for project 2012/705) do not currently have existing networks in the seafood export industry. This project is required to:
• Provide support to the consultants and assist with the two way transfer of knowledge between the industry and the consultants.

• Establish and provide ongoing support for an industry reference group as well as facilitate consultation the broader catching and export sector.

• Support communication and extension activity to borader SRL, WRL and ACA members.