With most of Australia's fish stocks near or at full exploitation, it is unlikely that the industy will expand and develop through increased will capture harvest. The main option for increased profits to the seafood industry is throwing away tens of thousands of tonnes of fish waste each year, potentially worth many of millions of dollars. Why? The wastes are produced a t low levels across hundreds of different shops, processors and markets around Australia. Economies of scale prevent any one of these small waste producers (and most of the larger ones) solving the under increased scrutiny due to environmental issues and is therefore becoming an increasing cost burden for the whole industry. The solution lies in a broad-scale coordinated and collaborative, multi jurisdictional approach across the different sectors of the seafood industry supply chain. Don't laugh, by forming ASCo, industry members (catching, processing wholesalers and retailers) from three different states have already agreed in principle and have committed funds to achieving this goal. This may be considered as a high risk commitment, however, as it is not going to be an easy process. The initial stages of structuring the company, developing a business plan and conducting a feasibility analysis will require extensive stakeholder input and collaboration. We are submitting this SIDF proposal to obtain funds to match our industry commitment and help us get through this first stage.
Final report
Within the Australian Seafood industry, thousands of tonnes of fish waste are produced by processors and retailers each year. Generally only the fillets are retained and the bulk (~60%) of the product is discarded, often at a cost to the processor and ending up as little more than land-fill. This practice is coming under increased scrutiny due to environmental issues and is becoming an increasing cost burden for the whole industry. Across the seafood industry in south eastern Australia alone, there is an estimate that well over 20,000t of fish product waste is produced each year.
Through the work of FRDC’s SEF Industry Development Subprogram to tackle this issue, a group of key stakeholders in the seafood industry formed Australian Seafood Co-products (ASCo: ACN 100 489 236). The mission of the company is to add value to the seafood supply chain through the sustainable utilisation of fish and fish co-products that are not traditionally utilised or marketed. ASCo has 17 seafood companies as shareholders spanning the five south eastern Australian states. A shareholder’s agreement is now in place and the company directors have now been elected.
ASCo considered a range of options for the utilisation of seafood waste. Given the relatively wide geographical area covered by Australia's seafood industry and the large variability in the amount and composition of species involved, it was agreed that processing the waste into a valuable organic fertiliser was the most suitable option for ASCo at this point in time. With this goal in mind ASCo went into partnership with Sieber, a New Zealand fertiliser company with proven fertiliser technology, technical backup, and partnerships with other established fertiliser companies and the agricultural industry. Sieber already had a range of fish-based fertiliser products in New Zealand with proven benefits to agricultural crops and certification for use in the rapidly growing organic (farming) market.
Keywords: South East Fishery, value-adding, waste utilisation, fertilisers, biological farming.
