Snapshot
With research commitments spanning on-water, through the supply chain and at point of sale, ACPF is on track to bring more results to fishers via the 2016-2020 RD&E Industry Partnership Agreement (IPA) with FRDC. 30% of our way through the IPA we are also close to having 30% of Research, Development and Extension funds committed. Return on investment highlights are below.
With an annual budget of over $500,000, the table below summarises the percentage committed vs budget allocated by program area.
Commitments (coloured) against remaining budget (outlined) in each of FRDC’s program areas.
Note: project commitments include a management, travel and communication portion
Current projects
Trace metals – trace metal profiles are to be used to establish the origin of prawns in the market; non Australian or Australian, and the location if Australian. These profiles are intended to support compliance activities from 2018.
Love Australian Prawns (LAP)
- Consumer research and sales data confirmed the effectiveness of the Love Australian Prawn (LAP) campaign: 20% of Australians recognise the LAP logo – a rate usually only achieved through TV advertising – and 20% price increases reported on average across Medium, Med-Large and Large grades from the start of the LAP campaign
- Woolworths, seafood retailers and consumers are to be provided with LAP education material on handling, species and other how-to information in 2017-18.
Bycatch – prawn fishers from around Australia met on bycatch and trawl efficiency in Cronulla, NSW and agreed that every fishery needs to work out solutions tailored to their specific challenges. Port meetings around Australia are planned to start from end 2017 to extend results of bycatch reduction projects/knowledge.
People development – funds are set aside against the R D & E Plan to develop industry capacity in the wild catch prawn sector.
Community engagement -Expert advice was received on areas where the wild catch prawn sector may suffer lack of community acceptance of fishing (social licence) and what ACPF needs to do to proactively manage those problems
Research Development and Extension – projects in the pipeline
On the horizon are investments in the areas of:
- Meta -bi-sulphate replacement; as ‘meta’, used as a preservative, is an allergen for some people. If the proposed Fight Food Fraud and Food Waste CRC is successful ACPF plans to start this project with the extra leverage on fisher’s funds that a CRC provides
- Community engagement; lack of community acceptance of fishing (social licence) is a risk for the wild caught prawn sector. ACPF is planning to work with other interested sectors to work out the most effective ways to connect with the community to improve recognition of the wild catch prawn sector
Past projects
Between 2007 and 2015, many of Australia’s prawn fisheries invested in R&D with added funding leverage through the Seafood CRC. Most of those investments were in the ‘Industry’ category. Details can be found at https://australianprawnfisheries.com.au/research-development-extension/