Australian Wild Abalone™ Program Update
October 14, 2013
“Nine import companies attended the Beijing Supply Chain Education Seminar, eleven import companies attended the Shanghai seminar and 20 import companies attended the Shenzhen/Hong Kong seminars. All in all, 35 different abalone import companies attended the briefing sessions and were awarded AWA™ Foundation Partner Certificates” .
Dean Lisson, Abalone Council Australia Ltd, Executive Chairman
The Australian Wild Harvest Abalone Industry goes to great lengths in order to harvest, process and export our Australian wild abalone products to all corners of the globe. Anyone involved in the supply chain will vouch for the patience, persistence and commitment required to get these delicious molluscs from the sea floor to the dinner plate. Experienced, licensed abalone divers hand select the finest quality abalones directly from the ocean floor, which are then delivered by temperature controlled vehicles to licensed processing facilities, where they are carefully processed and packed for export, under the strictest of controls. It is a delicate operation!
The quality, sustainability and provenance attributes of this product are now being showcased by the Australian Wild Abalone™ program. Supply chain participants have come together to develop a quality assured supply chain initially targeting two key markets – China and Hong Kong.
What is the Australian Wild Abalone™ program?
Based on extensive market development research in China, Abalone Council Australia Ltd (ACA) and the Abalone Association of Australasia Inc. (AAA) developed an exciting new domestic and international market education initiative called Australian Wild Abalone™ (AWA). It is supported with funding by the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (SCRC) and the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).
“The Australian wild abalone industry has undertaken research to identify opportunities for differentiating their product in China. Facing increasing competition and driven by declining returns, the industry is focused on the opportunities presented by the economic, political and social changes in China”
Jayne Gallagher, Program Manager – Product and Market Development, Seafood CRC.
The Australian Wild Abalone™ (AWA) China program has been profiled at various abalone industry forums across Australia since 2010 by the Executive Chairman of Abalone Council Australia, Dean Lisson.
The AWA™ team wants our Australian Wild Abalone™ customers to be secure in the knowledge that they are purchasing a premium quality product – a product harvested by experienced divers from the cool clean waters of southern Australia. They want to assure them it is processed and packaged according to the most stringent Quality Assurance and food safety guidelines. Harvested sustainably using the world’s most environmentally friendly fishing method, which means there is no ecological damage to the oceans floor and that customers can have confidence in the AWA™ Certification Mark.
Australian Wild Abalone™
Safe, Sustainable and Nutritious
The centrepiece of this initiative is the Australian Wild Abalone™ Certification Mark for co-branding Australian exporters’ products. This Certification Mark, along with the unique product provenance protection technology NanoTag™, will differentiate Australian Wild Abalone™ products as safe and sustainable.
The new AWA™ Program is underpinned by the following key attributes;
- A Quality Assurance Code of Practice from harvest to export
- New Brand Protection Technology called NanoTag™ that guarantees product provenance
- AWA™ labelled product meets the food safety requirements of the Australian government
- AWA™ labelled product is harvested from sustainable fisheries certified for export status by the Australian government.
- Australian wild abalone is recommended for consumption by the World Wildlife Fund because it comes from well managed fisheries and is harvested in an ecologically friendly way
- New research shows conclusively that AWA™ product is extremely healthy and nutritious
A range of educational tools have been produced that can be used alongside supply chain partners’ own materials, to collectively promote wild harvested Abalone product.
Premium quality Australian Wild Abalone™ (AWA) is proudly supplied by the following Australian companies – each of these companies complies with the AWA™ Quality Assurance Code of Practice.
Supply Chain Education Program
The AWA Supply Chain Education Program started in China and Hong Kong with a series of educational seminars. In June and September 2013, the project team visited Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong to brief abalone importers about the AWA™ program, the benefits of the program and what participating in the AWA™ initiative could mean for their businesses and clients.
“The AWA™ Importer briefing sessions in September were well attended and highly successful in showcasing the AWA™ Platform to key abalone importers across China and Hong Kong.
Nine import companies attended the Beijing Supply Chain Education Seminar, eleven import companies attended the Shanghai briefing and 20 import companies attended the Shenzhen/Hong Kong briefings. All in all, 35 different abalone import companies attended the briefing sessions and were awarded AWA™ Foundation Partner Certificates”.
We have spent three years researching the China/HK market and have developed the AWA™ Platform. We have the support of key Australian Abalone Export companies along with China/Hong Kong Abalone Importers for the AWA™ Program – the Program team is excited now that we are ready to commence trialling and evaluating the impact of market activation activities in China and Hong Kong.
We are currently engaged with Marketing Professionals in China and Hong Kong to refine our market activation strategy for the next 12 months and beyond – this strategy will take into account the challenging conditions currently being experienced within the China Food & Beverage sector due to the significant reduction in Chinese Government sponsored banquets.
More than ever, we need to target the non-Government sector within the domestic Chinese market to create awareness of and preference for Australian Wild Abalone products – restaurants in China are currently adapting to the changes by focussing more on their corporate and private individual/family clients – the AWA™ Program will work with the abalone supply chain and their clients in the F&B sector to target these consumers. “
AWA™ is an initiative of
Abalone Council Australia Ltd