November 19, 2010

Rising Australian dollar affects seafood exports

An increasing Australian dollar (AUD) is affecting exports and encouraging cheap seafood imports, causing farmers to renew their push as the industry is experiencing a decrease of export markets.

In order to shore up their markets against a massive input of cheap imports, barramundi farmers have renewed their push for effective origin labelling for seafood.

Australian Barramundi Farmers Association spokesman and leading aquaculture operator, Marty Phillips, alleges the increasing AUD exchange rate is also affecting the industry indirectly.

"The economy in general is pretty slow. I think the tourism industry is certainly down, especially up here in north Queensland but also through the rest of Australia, and a lot of our product ends up on restaurants," he said.

"So there are fewer tourists, less people going to restaurants, less demand. It's hard to sell fish at the moment, we are all doing it pretty tough," he said.