Heading into Christmas 2017, we see demand for wild catch Australian prawns as strong as ever, having weathered White Spot closures in SE Qld, seemingly overcome the “wait and see before buying again” concern of 1 in 20 Australians in July in response to White Spot, and surviving the recommencement of prawn importation in July 2017.
The release this week of Australia’s Inspector-General of Bio-security’s report “Uncooked prawn imports: effectiveness of biosecurity controls” and the implementation by the Australian Government of 21 of the 22 recommendations is timely. The first meeting of the Prawn Import Risk Assessment Review process is scheduled for February 2018.