shellfish futures continues to grow

October 2009

shellfish futures, an initiative of the Tasmanian Shellfish Executive Council (TSEC) and the Tasmanian Oyster Research Council (TORC), was held at Coles Bay on 23 and 24 October. This year the event was run under the Oysters Tasmania banner and was the biggest yet, with over 100 delegates attending a packed program over the two days.

The theme this year was 'Growing with Collaboration' and was designed to facilitate discussion regarding new opportunities, global competitiveness and farm profitability.

The Friday sessions concentrated on projects coordinated by Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre's Oyster Consortium, and included an overview of the range of CRC projects currently addressing marketing, breeding and cool supply chains.

Early results from the CRC's Australian Edible Oyster Industry Benchmarking project – in which 47 growers were interviewed and asked a range of quantitative and qualitative questions about their farm's performance – were presented by Shane Comiskey of CDI Pinnacle. The benchmarking process has been designed to allow participating growers to identify how their business is performing against other growers and the issues that are really important for running a profitable business. This presentation was well received and sparked detailed discussion.

Shane followed with a presentation of the Australian National Edible Oyster Strategic Plan, emphasising the need for a national plan to help the industry understand the focus, structure and resources necessary to meet industry needs. Shane spoke of the frustration expressed by government in dealing with multiple State peak bodies and proposed the formation of a unifying organisation Oysters Australia to further the National Plan.

Matt Cunningham of Australian Seafood Industries (ASI) presented the ASI Thoroughbred Oyster Program. Matt spoke about how ASI, in conjunction with Peter Cube and colleagues at CSIRO, has developed an economic weight model which allows specific targeting of traits which deliver financial benefit to the grower. The model allows comparison of family lines based on economic potential. Matt 'let the oysters do the talking' with a stock demonstration of oysters spawned in January 2008 – impressive for their (ungraded) size, uniformity and appearance.

Day Two started with presentations from two recent Nuffield Scholars, Jane Bennett of Ashgrove Cheese (Tasmania) and Lester Marshall of Coffin Bay Oysters (South Australia). Jane spoke about the role of provenance and regionality in the marketing and branding of food, with a particular emphasis on the relevance of Tasmania as a brand. A key message was the importance of local consumers – "no one has greater loyalty to regional products than the people who live within the region. Failure to focus on the local market . . . is a failure to capitalise on the most profitable market".

Lester provided a whirlwind summary of his ideas regarding developing a regional brand – speaking about regional foods and agriculture from his experiences in New Zealand, Ireland, France, the US, China and Japan, and how he was helping his local industry to rebrand the Eyre Peninsula as 'Australia's seafood frontier'. "A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer" he said (often!), adding that "some people believe that the most valuable real estate in the world is the corner of a consumers mind!".

A crucial aim of shellfish futures is that of providing a means of easy contact between growers, equipment manufacturers and trade representatives. To this end, a successful trade exhibition was convened alongside the presentations. Oysters Tasmania is pleased to thank our sponsors and exhibitors for their continued assistance in providing this valuable industry conference:

• AMCOR Fibre packaging;
• Australian Seafood Industries
• Ashmore's Foods Tasmania
• Austasia Aquaculture
• BST & Primaq
• Cameron of Tasmania
• Colquhoun's Adelaide Bag Company
• NAB – Agribusiness
• Hexcyl Systems & Plastic Fabrications
• RackOff
• Rural Development Services
• Seafood Training Tasmania
• SEAPA
• SED Shellfish Equipment
• Shellfish Culture
• Shellfish Data Management
• Tasmanian Seafood Industry Council
• TTP Plastic by Design