Australia’s major export market is Japan, a country in which food safety and quality are issues receiving much publicity. It is clear that Japanese consumers and, therefore, the buyers of Australian prawns will demand increasingly higher standards and assurances that quality standards are and will be maintained. The same arguments also apply to Europe where food quality and safety are seen as priority items in market access. The Australian industry must meet these demands or lose market share to competing suppliers or other products and/or suffer price reductions. Measures to ensure product integrity and safety must be implemented at the beginning of the supply chain - in this context, on board trawlers and in processing establishments - and must be seen by customers to be consistent, which requires proper training of crews and an audit system to provide assurance.
The domestic market for sea caught prawns, while less valuable, is equal in tonnage, with half the total catch (14,500 tonnes) sold on the local market. Competition from imported cooked farmed prawns and domestic farmed prawns is intense. Moreover, a large percentage of the local prawns are cooked on board boat. This is a ‘high risk’ process in food safety terms and all boats will be required to implement a food safety plan under proposed national regulations (Australia New Zealand Food Authority Proposals P145 & P160).
Further proposed changes to the Food Standards Code impact on the use of sulphur dioxide in prawns to prevent black spot. Ensuring all prawns are packed with a low residual SO2 content will be critical to avoid additional labelling.
A total quality management system for the prawn industry which is third party auditable and which links vessels and processing factories under a prawn mark will satisfy the needs of all sectors. There is a window of opportunity for the prawn industry to set the benchmark for prawn quality world wide.
Final report
APPA’s aim was to improve the image and value of Australian sea-caught prawns in international markets. In order to achieve this, the industry must ensure that it processes and offers consistent high quality and high value food. The customers must be able to recognise and reward the high quality through demand for ’clean and natural’ Australian sea-caught prawns, distinguishing them from farmed product and from sea-caught product from other origins.
The development of an industry quality standard and the method of getting it out to all vessels were regarded as a key support tool. This would ensure that a consistent quality image was created for importers and consumers.
The production of the two learning guides – “Handling Prawns at Sea, A Guide for Prawn Trawler Crew at Level 1 – ISBN 0-9581998-0-9” and “Handling Prawns at Sea, A guide for Prawn Trawler Skippers and Crew at Advanced Level – ISBN 0-9581998-1-7” were the main results of this project. The Code of Practice and the training materials that were developed early in the project were incorporated into the guides so that the initial results could be disseminated in a user-friendly format. The format can be used with the training package to deliver competencies towards real qualifications for trawler crew and skippers. There is also a Trainers Guide in electronic format that provides resources, lesson plans and assessment tools. This is a valuable aid for trainers and training organisations.