Seafood survey a Tasmanian first

Tasmanians are about to be asked about a topic close to their hearts – seafood. And the big question is: Are you eating Australian made?

In a Tasmanian first, 10,000 households will receive a questionnaire asking them all about their seafood buying habits. It’s hoped the information will ultimately lead local consumers back to the domestic product and away from frozen imports from Asia and Africa.

The research is the work of John Ramsden, a PhD student at the National Centre for Marine Conservation and Resource Sustainability at the Australian Maritime College, a specialist institute of the University of Tasmania.

Mr. Ramsden has been involved in the seafood industry all his life, coming from a King Island fishing family.

"Having been a (fish) farm person and coming from a commercial fishing background on King Island, I’m very interested in what consumers think about seafood and the choices they make," he said.

"The whole idea behind this research is to see if Australian seafood has an advantage in the marketplace. The broader application of this work is to fill the gap in market knowledge that producers have. At the moment they don’t know who is missing out on Australian seafood. We’re seeing a very big increase of imports in Australia and we don’t know who is eating those imports or why they choose non-Australian products. To get those people back to buying Australian seafood we need to know who they are and what motivates their purchases."

He said some types of consumer research had been undertaken in other states but no one looked to Tasmania. Previous research had also overlooked the notion of the information gap among Australian producers.

"So far, Tasmania has been left off the map, yet Tasmanians probably have a greater appreciation for seafood. Choices and opinions here will provide valuable research and add to the existing knowledge from across the rest of Australia," Mr. Ramsden said.

The envelopes with AMC, NCMCRS and UTAS logos will be arriving in the post from September 22 onwards. An Institute of the University of Tasmania

"We want results from Rossarden, from Waratah, we want results from everywhere around Tasmania, so we’re going to be sending questionnaires to every postcode in the state," Mr Ramsden said.

Anyone interested in filling out a questionnaire online, can go to http://www.amc.edu.au/marine.studies and follow the link to John Ramsden’s seafood survey on the right hand side of the page.

For more information contact:
John Ramsden
Mobile: 0429 093 707
Email: ramsdenw@amc.edu.au

Information Released by:
Media Office
Australian Maritime College
Patrick Cranny
Phone: 6335 4484
Mobile: 0429 117 000
Email: p.cranny@amc.edu.au