The Oyster Consortium is in danger of making market investment decisions without agreed strategy or, stalled by indecision, making an insignificant investment to ensure a profitable marketplace on completion of the CRC.

The Consortium needs an agreed document, collating all work undertaken on consumer trends and expectations, that guides its investment within the marketing area. It also needs a strategic direction for the industry.

To begin to address this the Oyster Consortium;
1. will undertake to complete an Australian Oyster Industry Business Plan addressing the production environment, market/supply chain, industry structures before recommending an R & D plan.
2. has commissioned a desktop project that a) defines the current consumer’s expectations, b) summarises previous recommendations, and c) identifies any gaps in previous work.
3. plans to hold a follow up meeting to decide a) if/how the industry can meet those expectations through understanding product produced, b) directions it may take to meet expectations, in particular to consider contribution to relevant CRC projects ahead of Australian Oyster Industry Business Plan completion.

The “Oyster Consortium marketing projects investment meeting” is an essential step to guide the work of the Consortium’s Marketing Working Group and a vital step in achieving the following aims;
• Accepting a documented summary of consumer expectations from which to guide investment
• Forming views on industry needs and strategies that enable the industry to meet those expectations
• Preliminary input into the Business Plan and resolution on financial contribution into relevant CRC projects

The Business Plan is needed to define the priorities and allocate the financial and human resources available to the Asutralian Barramundi Farmers Association.
The previously developed Strategic plan listed a large number of important projects, but these now need to be prioritised after consideration of:
. available resources
. what is critical to industry development now
. what can be put off until more resources are avaialble
. what can or will be done elsewhere in the wider industry even if the ABFA does not allocate the resources.
The business plan will enable budgets to be set and industry development to be undertaken with a reasonable consideration of what is achievable.
Perhaps most importanlty for a management plan. this will identify what is not going to be attempted.
The industry and Association will be able to focus its efforts on what can be achieved. It will ensure resources are allocated efficiently and effectively.

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Yellowtail Kingfish culture is a rapidly expanding industry in Australia, particularly in rural South Australia, where it is driving the increase in the ‘other’ category of aquaculture production from ~1100 tonnes valued at ~$9 million in 2002-03 to 2000 tonnes and $17 million in 2004-05 (ABARE, 2006). Regarding future production, CST alone are projecting an increase in annual production towards 8,000 T by 2015.

CST is the largest producer of Yellowtail Kingfish in Australia having produced over 1.25 M juveniles in 2007. The company operates two Yellowtail Kingfish hatcheries at Arno Bay and Port Augusta. The production of quality larvae from hatcheries underpins the production of farmed fish and low survival and high levels of malformations significantly increase costs.

Survival of Yellowtail Kingfish juveniles in Australian marine hatcheries is very low in comparison to many other marine species such as sea bass and bream produced in larger more mature industries, for example in Europe. Of particular note, several skeletal malformations have been reported in Australia and New Zealand, although few are well documented (Yellowtail Kingfish, Cobcroft et al., 2004).

There is also high variability in hatchery survival rates and the rate and severity of deformities among production runs and commercial hatcheries.

By way of illustration, the direct benefit to Clean Seas Tuna Ltd. of reducing malformations in Yellowtail Kingfish is estimated to be $1 million p.a. In this example a reduction in malformations from 40% to 20% (on 2.0 M juveniles before quality grading) could produce a further 400,000 good quality juveniles @ $2.50 (market value) = $1,000,000.