

The new Kin Premium Australian Seafood bluefin tuna processing and marketing company (Photo: courtesy ABC)

Southern bluefin tuna companies unite to develop domestic market after sales to Japan fall

AUSTRALIA

Monday, September 21, 2020, 16:00 (GMT + 9)

The following is an excerpt from a ABC article:

A new venture formed by three tuna families will develop and market products for domestic consumers

Australia's southern bluefin tuna sales are down 20 per cent in Japan due to COVID-19

A younger generation is restructuring the local industry by diversifying products and markets

The next generation of three fishing families have united to take their prized catches to Australian consumers in light of slumping sales to Japan this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers from the three companies have been trained to cut the tuna for freezing for the value-adding project.(Photo: Courtesy ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jodie Hamilton)

Blaslov Fishing Company, Stehr Group and Dinko Tuna Farmers have formed Kin Premium Australian Seafood, which last week processed the final batch of 10 tonnes of southern bluefin tuna bound for the domestic market by December.

Traditionally, the bulk of the 6,165 tonnes of the Australian quota of southern bluefin has been fattened in holding pens off Port Lincoln and exported as whole fish to Japanese buyers.

Photo: Courtesy ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jodie Hamilton)

Kin project manager Tom Robinson, who helped set up a similar value-adding system for South Australia's pipi industry, said the initial tuna harvest provided product that could be tested and assessed by consumers.(continued...)

Author: Jodie Hamilton / ABC | Read the rest of the story by clicking the link here

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