The Australian prawn industry has experienced no real increase in prawn prices for over a decade. In most domestic markets, prawn prices are now lower than they were 10 years ago. Prawn prices back to the wharf have fallen as a result.
During this time, prawn imports have increased and prawn exports have decreased: fishers are facing increased costs, which are not being compensated by the price they receive for prawns. This is currently exacerbated by the high Australian dollar value and the competition within Australia between prawn sales (domestic and imports). The Australian Treasury forecasts that the $A will remain high for some years.
The ACPF, with the APFA, is participating in the 'National Prawn Market Development Strategy' project, to put together a national prawn marketing and promotion campaign that builds on the work of other existing campaigns, plus using consumer research that builds upon marketing Australian prawns. The aim is to increase the consumption of Australian prawns domestically. Obviously funding is required for marketing and promotion and the ACPF is not in a position to provide those funds.
Final report
This project provided input into the National Prawn Market Development Strategy. It has established a process to collect voluntary contributions on a national basis for the prawn industry across all license holders in the wild-catch and aquaculture sectors.
The value proposition for prawn license holders is compelling: an average investment of 2.6 c/kg of landed harvest volume will result in an 11 c/kg increase in average net beach/pond prices by the third year. This is an attractive 4.2:1 multiplier on fishers’ contribution investments.
