REPORT ON “AUSTRALIAN SEAFOOD ON DISPLAY”

FOR AUSTRALIAN BARRAMUNDI FARMERS ASSOCIATION
Prepared by Julii Tyson

BACKGROUND

At the AGM/Conference on the Gold Coast, 5 ABFA members** and the ABFA agreed to participate in the Australian Seafood on Display exhibition on the 14 & 15 September 2005, in Sydney at a total cost of $2,750 GST inclusive.

This event was a key component of the 6th World Congress on Seafood Safety, Quality and Trade.

The display provided an opportunity to showcase Australia seafood products and their producers to an international audience, made up of delegates to the Congress as well as international buyers attending the Fine Food Australia exhibition.

** The 5 members were

1. Barramundi Waters
2. Humpty Doo Barramundi
3. Marine Harvest
4. Marine Produce Australia
5. Southern Barramundi

Each of these members as well as the ABFA contributed $458.33 (ie 1/6th of $2,750) – the total of $2,750 was paid by Humpty Doo Barramundi.

ACTION: Julii Tyson to invoice the other 4 members and the ABFA for $458.33 each

DISPLAY STAND

Craig Foster and Julii Tyson took responsibility for coordinating the ABFA display, which included

Putting together information about both the ABFA and the Australian barramundi industry for the brochure given to all attendees at a Cocktail Party, where farmed barramundi featured on the menu.

ACTION: Julii Tyson will mail a copy of the brochure to the 5 participating members and also to Graham Dalton

Obtaining promotional material, business cards etc from the participating members and the ABFA to handout to prospective customers.
Organising the supply of barramundi product samples from the 5 ABFA members (the display had packaged fillet product from Barramundi Waters and whole barramundi from Marine Harvest)
Craig organised a banner with the new ABFA logo on it (He has donated this banner to the ABFA, on behalf of Marine Harvest)

ACTION: Julii Tyson will organise for the banner to be sent to Graham Dalton.

Setting up and staffing the stand
Coordinating the supply of barramundi for the Cocktail Party menu (Marine Harvest provided the barramundi)
Consulting with the Star City chefs about how to prepare the barramundi for the Cocktail Party.

BUSINESS MATCHING OPPORTUNITY

Austrade brought international buyers to Sydney for the Fine Food Australia exhibition and also coordinated a Business Matching Program for these buyers and Australian Seafood on Display participants.

ABFA was scheduled to meet with Wholefoods & Plitt Seafoods from the USA and Jumbo Seafood from Singapore

Wholefoods have a chain of “top class” supermarkets/delis in the US & Plitt Seafoods are the seafood suppliers to Wholefoods.

The Jumbo Seafood representatives never arrived.

Questions asked by the US companies included

The size of the industry,
The size and type of product currently available (ie plate, fillet & banquet size whole fish, prepackaged fillets, portions etc)
Availability of product
Time it takes to grow a fish to the various sizes
History of the importation of barramundi into the USA
Age of the product when it arrives in Los Angeles.

Some of the issues raised included:

Feed including Land Animal Protein content, grain substitution for fish meal etc
Use of antibiotics & vaccines in feed and on farms

CONCLUSION

As is often the case with such displays, no immediate business was done but a lot of interest was shown by the international buyers and delegates.

The ABFA’s participation in the Australia Seafood on Display provided a fantastic opportunity for the industry to promote itself to an international audience relatively inexpensively.

The strength and depth of the Australian barramundi farming industry was emphasized as was

The reliable supplies of the “iconic” Australian fish produced by an established industry (over 16 years of production and/or since 1980)
The safe, high quality product from environmentally responsible production systems – clean and green and sustainable
The range of different products based on:
- Size - fillet fish (ie big whole fish), plates & banquet
- Value adding - portions, fillets.