Story by: Tom Lewis

Memo to: TFIC

Re: The inaugural Tasmanian Seafood Industry Awards

Message: Top Show!

TFIC's leadership in establishing the Tasmanian Seafood Industry Awards is to be applauded.

To have Tasmania's seafood industry gather together – to celebrate our unique position and opportunities – was the result of a great initiative, well executed.

But what was this really all about?

It was all about recognising that Tasmanian seafood, and everyone involved in its production, should be aiming at world's best practice.

It was all about recognising our industry leaders: those who have put in extraordinary effort to ensure they are the best at what they do – be that training their people, performing their research, managing their fishery, harvesting their raw product, promoting their value-added product or presenting their product to the world.

And it was all about recognising that we are all part of this thing called the Tasmanian Seafood Industry – and that we need to work together with this in mind if we are to compete effectively in this marketplace.

TFIC wants to harness this creative energy into an ongoing, industry-led forum focussing on QUALITY – who decides what quality is, why they decide, how it is measured, what affects it, and why this really matters at all.

Saul Eslake, the Tasmanian born chief economist for the ANZ Bank, has been widely quoted as saying "Tasmania's future cannot possibly lie in the volume production of essentially unprocessed commodities at lower prices than competitors with better access to larger and cheaper resources of labour and capital, and to markets, by virtue of their closer proximity or membership of trade blocs. Tasmania's future depends on its capacity to produce and market highly differentiated goods and services, embodying a relatively high intellectual content, and for which customers are willing to pay premium prices."

If this is true, then the Tasmanian Seafood Industry will need a strong point of differentiation to sustain our competitive position in national and international marketplaces.

An industry-wide focus on quality, and all that this word implies, can provide this point of difference.

Who else is better positioned to impress upon the market the quality of both the environment from which our product is harvested and of the practices used throughout the supply chain?

The Quality Matters column will encourage debate on how a quality focus can help stimulate and sustain the Tasmanian Seafood Industry.

But this debate should look wider and deeper than the possible technical fixes to quality-related issues.

Our industry needs also to identify, prioritise and make the adaptive changes – the changes in attitude, perception and behaviour – that are sure to be a vital part of this mix.

As an industry, we need to reflect on the questions that need to be asked, the options we need to consider, and the areas in which we collaborate to realise our potential.

The winners at this year's Tasmanian Seafood Industry Awards are leading the way.

Tom Lewis manages the Seafood and Food Manufacturing Programs for Rural Development Services and can be contacted on 03 6231 9033 email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it