Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) has been awarded a $267,000 Australian government grant to strengthen consumer assurances in the nation’s premium seafood products.
Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud and Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonathon Duniam says the investment will boost export opportunities through enhanced traceability.
“With this funding, SIA will develop a closed loop ‘trust mark’; a visually recognisable label for packaging that can be scanned with a smartphone, like a QR code,” says Mr Littleproud.
“This will indicate to consumers that the product they’re buying is 100% traceable, Australian seafood, which they can verify digitally.”
Mr Duniam says the technology will improve opportunities to access international markets and promote Australian seafood locally.
“By deploying these trust marks, we can verify our Aussie seafood in the domestic market and shore up our brand overseas,” he says.
“Unfortunately, seafood is a market where fraudulent products can significantly devalue our exports, but new advancements like this will help our seafood industry to better use traceability and sustainability to set their product apart from the rest.
“This new technology will also ensure Australians can easily identify home-grown seafood, which will boost our great Australian seafood, Easy As, campaign that was created by SIA with our $4 million investment.”
SIA CEO Veronica Papacosta says that the grant is a chance to build Australia’s reputation as a provider of quality seafood to both domestic and international markets.
“We’ve been working on building brand awareness within Australia of our great Australian seafood, and now it’s time to turn our focus to international markets,” she says.
“We’re starting with a pilot program to build and test the technology. We’re hopeful it will then be rolled out to the entire industry.
“Importantly, this is technology that can be used by other industries outside of seafood. Greater traceability for Australian produce will underpin confidence in brand Australia in export markets.
“We are grateful for the continued support of the Morrison government.”
