Seafood CRC: Seafood trade and market access portal
The project seeks to address a core need of Australian Seafood CRC participants for timely, simple access to international residue and contaminant standards, export certification requirements, tariff and customs information to support export activities. Currently this information does not exist in an easily accessible, simple format to inform industry of its technical market access needs.
For example, as a consequence of the melamine issue in China affecting dairy products Australian aquaculture exporters are now being required to demonstrate proof of absence in products (and in feed fed) by overseas port of entry authorities. The rapid emergence of the melamine issue has seen standards hurriedly imposed in markets including China and Hong Kong for seafood products. Melamine is symbolic of many traceability issues which are now starting to confront the seafood industry.
Industry needs better preparedness to respond to international market access issues such as cadmium in prawns in the EU. SSA facilitated a position at the CODEX meeting in Norway on cadmium in crustacea. The strategy was thwarted by lack of access to detailed standards and related documents (on standards in other markets etc). Similarly for arsenic in shellfish.
Lead content of tuna being exported to Japan was brought into question following a violative reading being reported. Further investigation found that the portion (tail fin) of tuna submitted for analysis.
The emergence of Non Government Organisation endorsements such as Friend of the Sea, Marine Stewardship Council etc are now introducing effectively what are private label standards for products traded in multiple standards.
The CODEX Alimentarius process is growing and there is a need to inform national delegation and working groups of specific individual country circumstances quickly. The marine vibrio issue that emerged in mid 2008 in Japan was swiftly resolved as the PI had access to Japanese documents and standards.
Final report
The value of Australian seafood exports now exceeds $1 billion per annum and products are dispatched to various countries around the world (> 20 markets). To ensure Australian seafood can gain access to these markets it is necessary to demonstrate compliance with each country’s food safety and trade standards. The objective of this study was to establish a web portal service on technical food safety and trade rules of countries importing Australian seafood (existing and future potential markets). The information includes residue and contaminant standards, export certification requirements and tariff/customs information for international markets of importance to Australian Seafood CRC members.
The Seafood Trade and Market Access Database is an online database that has been developed by a team of technical and regulatory experts to support the Australian seafood sector to easily identify overseas market access requirements. The database provides information for key overseas markets on residue and contaminant standards, microbiological standards, preservative standards, tariff and import duties, export certification requirements, rejection and detention notification reports, and trade volume statistics.
