Seafood Trade Matters: Export Program Report; SafeFish Bivalve Risk Register; IUU fishing focus 

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Export Program Summary report

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF) has released a summary of the
export program for the period 1 July 2022 to 31 March 2023.

While the overall number of registered export establishments and vessels has decreased, there was a four percent increase in export permits issued compared to the same period last financial year. China remains the largest market by volume, accounting for around 33 percent of exports, with Japan, Vietnam, USA, and Hong Kong rounding out the top five customers for Australian seafood. Read the report on the STAG website here.

Austrade has published the State of Export report 2023, which provides an overview of
Australia’s trade performance in 2020-21. Read the document here.

SafeFish: Bivalve risk register

SafeFish has completed the bivalve sector specific risk register process You can read the final comprehensive report for the identification of the top material risks as well as a two pager summary by following the links below:

Full report: Risk Register Bivalve Sector (safefish.com.au)
Summary: Risk Register Bivalve Sector - Two Page Summary (safefish.com.au)

Focus on IUU Measures

As the federal government considers stakeholder views on measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, Seafood Trade Matters provides some recent links on the issue. 

The Mandarin has published an article about an IUU paper from the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue. The group says “Australia can and should be a global leader.”
Read the article here. Read the full paper here.

EU activists are urging wider adoption and implementation of the UN Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), a binding agreement that targets IUU fishing, to address the problem in the Pacific. Read more about their efforts here.

In the USA, Senators are calling for ‘a revised proposed rule to the Seafood Import Monitoring
Plan (SIMP) current proposal to tackle IUU fishing.’ They cite a lack of stakeholder consultation and questions around the ‘method used for additional species selection’ as the key concerns.
Read more here.

The Financial Times published an interesting piece looking at IUU in the context of geopolitical competition and increasing securitisation of economic and trade issues.
Read the article here (registration may be required).

UK: Draft SPS rules

The UK Government is consulting on a draft Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), which will be the basis of the UK’s post-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regime. Seafish.org has an explainer here. The article contains information on procedures, risk-categories, and timelines.

Export Supply Chain Snapshot

Austrade’s Export Supply Chain Service (ESCS) has published a snapshot looking at shipping freight trends. Download the snapshot on the ESCS website here.

ASEAN: Declaration to protect migrant fishers

On 10 May, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) approved a declaration strengthening measures to protect migrant fishers. The Declaration on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers calls for ASEAN member states to take a range of actions to improve their policies concerning and treatment of migrant fishers. Read more from Seafoodsource.com here.

Japan: Fukushima waste water

The Global Seafood Alliance looks at Japan’s plans to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean and the impact on the regional fishing industry. Read here.

WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement 

Pewtrusts.org has a useful explainer on the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and the current state of play. Read here.

The STAG is funded by partners:

www.seafoodtradeadvisory.com

The Seafood Trade Advisory Group (STAG) is jointly funded by the Australian government and the fishing industry. We receive funds from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).which is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Water and the Environment. 

 Any information provided in this STAG publication is general in nature. Before acting on any information provided, you should consider its appropriateness to your individual circumstances and business objectives.