Geraldton Fishermen's Co-operative's online Members' meeting was held on Monday, 16th January 2023.

Your Co-operative Update: 

GFC CEO Matt Rutter gave a Cooperative update to Members. The main points are summarised below.

• Matt spoke about the start of the new, shortened season and told Members that GFC is in a solid position to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.
• Matt also gave a wrap-up of the Member barbecues in December and January. Matt said it was a welcome change to catch up with so many Members up and down the coastline in person, and more of these will be planned in the future.
• Matt also spoke about the final quarterly top-up payment and the season-loyalty payments, which were announced last Friday. Details of that announcement are as follows:
   

  $2.00 Loyalty Top-up Payment for catch delivered in Loyalty Period 6, being 1st October 2022 to 14th January 2023.

  $1.20/kg Annual Loyalty Payment for catch delivered for the whole season, being 1st July 2021 to 14th January 2023.
  
  Both of these payments will be made in the first week of February 2023

  These payments finalise GFC's 2021-23 season Loyalty Scheme, which returned just under $24,000,000 of additional payments to Members throughout the season. 

Member Update

Leith Teakle provided Members with several updates. The main points are summarised below;

• Leith mentioned the Member catch survey that was sent to fishers recently. Based on the Member's responses, daily intake is expected to be higher until the end of February, with forecasted fishing activity expected to drop off later in the season. Leith mentioned these are only estimates with weather, market and pricing bound to impact fishing activity but were in line with GFC's expectations. Leith assured Members that GFC would communicate any potential supply chain pressures if they arise. 
• Leith also demonstrated the new "Fishing Trip" features available in the Member app. This will make it easier for Members to schedule, edit or delete their fishing intentions via the app. This information is instantly fed through to GFC's supply chain and sales teams. Members are encouraged to download the updated version of the app in Google Play or App Store now.
• GFC's beach price SMS service to Members will be switched off from Friday, 20th January. From Friday, Members will be able to receive beach prices via the app, website or email.
• Leith gave Members an overview of the 2023 Loyalty payment scheme for the 5.5-month season (see below).

Market Summary;

Bryan Keay, GM of Trade and Business Development, gave Members a market update. The main points are summarised below;

• COVID outbreaks in some markets have impacted live sales demand.
• Frozen production and sales were higher due to a lower volume of live sales in December.
• The above-average intake to finish the season kept the live-to-intake ratio lower.

The next Member online meeting is scheduled for Thursday 2nd February 2023, at 4 pm. The meeting link will be sent to members via email before the meeting.

If you have any questions or topics you'd like addressed in a future meeting, or if you want to discuss the above summary further, please get in touch with one of the Member Services team.

Bait Supply Update

At the start of a new fishing season, we've compiled an outlook on bait products that GFC sources for Members. Many industries are experiencing supply chain delays, labour shortages, or inflationary cost pressures, and the bait sector is not immune to these factors.

GFC remains committed to sourcing a broad range of bait products at reasonable prices for our Members. However, the current environment requires us to be more flexible in the types of baits we source.

Orange Roughy Heads
Orange Roughy heads will be in short supply until the new fishing season commences in New Zealand. The shortage of Roughy heads is due to several factors;

• There is an increasing trend for fish to be sold whole; therefore, fewer heads are produced as a byproduct;
• Many New Zealand processors are experiencing processing staff shortages which have affected recent catch volumes and production;
• This season, there has been a significant decrease in production volumes from Tasmanian suppliers.

Based on this information, we're hopeful that the supply of Roughy Heads will return to a more consistent level by Easter. In the meantime, we have ample supplies of Jack Mackerel heads and Hoki heads.

Hoki Heads
Hoki heads remain relatively plentiful, and we rely increasingly on this bait sourced from New Zealand.

Blue Mackerel – Whole and Heads

Blue Mackerel caught in NZ is increasingly sold as whole fish, so the head byproduct is becoming harder to source. The whole Blue Mackeral bait product remains subject to Western Rock Lobster fishery use limits due to sustainability concerns in the Blue Mackeral fishery. GFC will continue to source Blue Mackerel products for Members in line with current sustainability guidelines.

Jack Mackerel heads are probably the closest alternative to Blue Mackerel and this product is gaining in popularity amongst fishers.  

Jack Mackerel Heads
We recently identified Jack Mackerel heads as a potential replacement for other head baits impacted by supply constraints.

Pork Flare 
Pork flare availability from domestic sources looks positive.

Salmon - Heads and Cutlets
Currently, we have no salmon heads in stock but plenty of cutlets. Suppliers of salmon require us to take the whole fish (processed), so for every fish caught, we get one head and eight or nine cutlets. Because the salmon head is the preferred bait product, we run out of heads but have difficulty selling the cutlets.  

If we still have unsold cutlets when the new salmon fishing season starts in March, we'll have to limit our orders to avoid being overstocked with cutlets for the following season.

Warehou Heads
Discounting the price of Warehou heads was effective in helping to move all stock of this product. Warehou heads were not popular with fishers, and we do not intend to continue to stock this bait.

Alfonsino
Alfonsino bait is sourced from New Zealand and is in very short supply. GFC will continue to stock this bait for Members who use this product. 

Tuna Heads
Production issues from suppliers have resulted in increased prices and shipping delays. GFC will continue to stock tuna heads for Members that use this product.

At this time, we don't foresee any significant issues supplying Member's bait needs for the season; however, as the summary above indicates, the bait market remains challenging. We will continue to update members periodically in future Brolos Catcher issues or during our online meetings. 

GFC maintains a list of bait products on our website.

Western Rock Lobster Featured in the Taste of Australia Event in Abu Dhabi.

Earlier this month, GFC participated in a Taste of Australia event in Abu Dhabi through a collaboration with industry, government and the Australian Business Group in Abu Dhabi.

The event was held at the Beach Rotana in Abu Dhabi, where industry and guests enjoyed Brolos Western rock lobster among a veritable feast of other premium Australian producers, including Victorian grass-fed lamb, Fremantle Octopus Group and Kinkawooka Shellfish.

The Taste of Australia event kicks off one of a series of business development initiatives in the Gulf region by your Trade and Business Development team. Later this year, the sales team will participate in Meet the Buyer virtual and in-person events, including Gulfood. Gulfood is the premier Food and Beverage Expo in the Middle East and attracts a global audience of producers and buyers. 

We will share more information on these market development activities in later editions of The Brolos Catcher.

French Lobster Fisher Delegation Update

Members may recall an article GFC shared about a French lobster fisher delegation that visited GFC last year. Earlier this month, we received a video from the group summarising their experience, learning about Australia's various rock lobster fisheries. 

As part of the delegation's tour of the country, GFC hosted the group through our Welshpool facility along with members from the DPIRD research team, where the group learnt more about the science that underpins the sustainability of the fishery and the industry's export operations.

Serge Gomes da Silva who facilitated the group's visit, summarised the experience recently by saying;

We have been blessed with your warm welcome, support and all the information, ideas and lessons learned from our trip to Western Australia and Tasmania in October last year. We would like to share with you a short video clip we produced to synthesise the wonderful discoveries of our trip to your beautiful country. 

Transition for Health & Safety Resource for Commercial Fishing Industry.

FishSafe Australia is a national resource for Australia's commercial fishing industry to access health and safety resources. FishSafe will be transitioning to the National Safety Project managed by Seafood Industry Australia.

The transition intends to deliver a National Safety Project that has been designed by industry, for industry and will be implemented as a peer-to-peer driven program.

More information will be released on the transition in the coming months, and we will share these with Members. In the interim, you can head to the Seafood Industry Australia page. 

Dongara Blessing of the Fleet Wrap Up

The Fishing industry and the Midwest community united earlier this month for the 50th Dongara Blessing of the Fleet.

There were plenty of activities happening on and off the water, including GFC's Lobster Cocktail stand; check out the summary of the day here.

We want to extend a big congratulations to all the winners on the day and thank the Dongara Professional Fishing Association and the Blessing of the Fleet committee members for all their hard work behind the scenes to bring this day and the community together - well done!

Best Decorated Boats; Que Sera in 1st place and Wahoo runner up.

Rope Coiling Winners By Category;

Ladies; Emily Cole, runner-up Natalie Sloper

Decky's; 1st place Ashley Cole, 2nd place Clint Chitty, 3rd place Dylan Philipps, 4th place Luc Rayner.

Open; 1st place Jonathon Moggy Buist, 2nd place Michael Butcher, 3rd place Peter Minchin

Veterans; 1st place Paul Warnock, 2nd place John Fitzhardinge, 3rd place Dundee

If you couldn't attend, check out this video of some of the procession or read the ABC article covering all the activities on the day.

Upcycled cray ropes by Zephyr & Co. Image courtesy @_zephyrandco_ 

Donate your old fishing ropes so they can be transformed.

Britta, a Perth-based artist specialising in upcycling old cray ropes and turning them into unique pieces, is looking for more raw materials.  

If any Members have old or unused cray ropes of any size or colour, you can contact Britta through her Instagram page or 0466 337 691.