January 5, 2007

Australia's seafood industry funds research centre to boost production

A new seafood research centre in Australia is expected to give a much needed boost to the country's seafood sector.

The Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is a collaboration by the Australian seafood consortium to boost Australia's flagging seafood production.  

Currently, the industry meets only 40 percent of Australian demand for seafood and the figure is expected to slump to 25 percent if current conditions continue.

The centre would serve to guide the seafood industry in finding ways to make better use of fish that would have been discarded, long a concern of the seafood industry. Other processes to be looked into include ways to reduce waste through processing as well as to develop more innovative seafood products that consumers want.

It would also work with the industry to improve fish-farming, a particular area of research being ways to raise fish in inland saline waters.

Total investment committed to the Seafood CRC during the next seven years will be AUS$135 million (US$105.8 million), with AUS$35.5 million (US$27.8 million) being contributed by the Australian Government.

Chairman of the consortium that fielded the CRC proposal, Peter Dundas-Smith, said the centre would benefit Australia in many ways. For example, the CRC is expected to directly and indirectly add AUS$2.4 billion (US$1.9 billion) to the Australian economy in the first 10 years and generate more than 2,800 new jobs.