SIA receives grant funding to strengthen trust in Australian seafood
Seafood Industry Australia has been awarded a $267,000 Australian Government grant to strengthen consumer assurances in our premium seafood products.
The funding will be used to develop a closed loop ‘trust mark’; which is a visually recognisable label for packaging that can be scanned with a smartphone, like a QR code, to digitally confirm to consumers that the product they’re buying is 100 per cent traceable Australian seafood.
Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud and Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonathon Duniam said the investment would boost export opportunities through enhanced traceability.
It is also expected that 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,” Assistant Minister Duniam said.
“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 Seafood Industry Australia with our $4 million investment.”
Seafood Industry Australia chief executive officer, Veronica Papacosta, said that the grant was 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,” Ms Papacosta said.
“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,” she said.