Australian oyster farmers invest in the future of their industry. Since 2007 oyster farmers have primarily pooled state funds and channelled them through the Australian Seafood CRC. $3.9million of Government and industry funds is currently invested over 7 years through the Seafood CRC. Around the table, growers have agreed on research priorities in common across state borders.
The industry's investment is broken between genetics/selective breeding, benchmarking performance, supply chain performance, market research/product development and management/planning.
Oysters Australia's Objective 1 is "To sustainably increase industry production to 20 million dozen, net profit by 10% and industry Gross Value of Production (GVP) to $120 million per annum". Breeding oysters with low mortality rates, grow quickly and uniformly and keep condition continues to be the industry's highest priority. Benchmarking business performance to reduce costs of production is another high priority. Breeding QX disease resistance in Sydney Rock Oysters is one of the great achievements of the industry's R & D investments.
Oysters Australia's Objective 2 is "To increase oyster consumption by 13% to 0.93 dozen per capita and achieve an 80% satisfaction rating from our markets and customers through the supply of consistently high quality oysters." Supply chain performance and product development are two areas the industry will grow its investment in order to keep consumers happy.
For more information on R & D findings, visit the Australian Seafood CRC for a list of projects and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation's Publications Database for Oysters.
