The conference was attended by some 300 delegates from around Australia including a number of students who were supported via the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (DAFF). The general theme throughout the conference was about understanding the current economic situation, climate change and the effect marketing can have on your business.
Within each of the key areas the organisers bought together a range of international and national speakers. This year, keynote speakers included aquaculture technical manager for DSM Nutritional Products, Dr. Jacques Gabaudan and Associate Professor of the National Hsing University of Taiwan, Bith-Hong Ling. Associate Professor Ling’s expertise and research focus is on the seafood trade and marketing, international marketing, and aquaculture economics.
From the barramundi point of view much of the conference focused on marketing, and there were talks given by marketing personnel working within the banana, lamb and wheat industries. Each of these industries is supported by an overarching organising that promotes those industries, something that is currently lacking within the barramundi or seafood sector in Australia. The underlying messages from these speakers was that as an industry, there is a need to work together to increase the market share of seafood in general. The speakers made it clear that there is no point sending out negative messages on imported products as this will only flow through to decreased overall seafood sales. Marketing needs to aim to increase seafood sales as a whole, not increase the sales of one sector at the expense of another seafood, as this does not grow market share.
The ABFA and APFA successfully combined to present a highly informative and well attended conference.