Aquaculture is ultimately a complex concept. Presently the aquaculture industry sectors are experiencing challenges to communicating a collective narrative to support and educate external stakeholders and defend its activities when required. This position is due to a range of factors, including the absence of coordinated government outreach programs, policies and platforms (like provided to dairy and other sectors), a lack of stakeholder awareness on industry priorities and contribution to society, and the absence of effective structures to support knowledge sharing and low aquaculture literacy. Furthermore, there has been no platform to bring the industry sectors together for united outreach or to collectively communicate the value proposition of aquaculture and the key messages in a way that resonates, or results in a change of behaviour (trust) with key stakeholders.
While there are many individual voices in the industry with a multitude of state and species-based advocacy organizations, committees and special interest groups, this makes it difficult to lead a coordinated and consistent internal message within the industry, as well as to coordinate responses to issues and topics important to external stakeholders. The impact can mean there are mixed or incoherent messages going to seafood consumers, local community groups living or operating adjacent to farms, supply chain partners, NGO’s, researchers, policy makers, international agencies, and local, state and federal government agencies.
To build a strong and ensuring cross-sectoral communications and outreach program, there is a need to map the internal and external stakeholder landscape and capture current outreach and communications efforts, priorities, message banks, and scale of influence of these groups.
Final report
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing agrifood areas globally and is key to ensure food security for a growing world population. Australia’s aquaculture industry has a critical role to play in realising this ambition, having surpassed wild catch levels and expected to reached A$2.29B GVP (2022-23). The industry is also poised to expand, drawing on innovation, a highly skilled workforce, research and growing consumer demand. It is also increasingly responsive to global trends, like investor and retailer sustainability expectations, decarbonisation roadmaps, zero harm welfare frameworks, and the increased community and interest group scrutiny on local impact of food systems.
However, communicating the potential of the industry and its products is often challenging, as key stakeholder groups sometimes have limited understanding of Australian aquaculture operations, the industry’s direction, and its benefits. This is compounded by the diversity of the industry and its stakeholders and regulators, and the absence of effective structures to educate and support knowledge sharing. Hence, understanding the current stakeholder and engagement landscape of the Australian aquaculture industry is seen as an essential step in developing effective industry outreach and communication initiatives to build aquaculture literacy across the stakeholder spectrum.
This project was undertaken by Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) with the support of the P2P Business Solutions, an independent consultancy, and the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). The project was also supported by a Project Review Group comprised of representatives from across the industry.
As a starting point, desktop research was undertaken to map the current stakeholder and engagement landscape of the Australian aquaculture industry. This provided insight into how organisations in different sectors of the industry from across Australia currently communicate with their stakeholders, who their key stakeholders are, and the main topics being communicated. Initiatives of other international aquaculture sectors and Australian primary industries were also investigated to understand the approaches they have adopted for their industry outreach, communication and engagement programs.
