The apparent consumption of seafood per person (edible equivalent) in Australia decreased at an average annual rate of 0.6 percent – from 14.6 kg in 2005/06 to 13.8 kg in 2015/16 – finds the latest “Australian Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistics” report, compiled by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences’ (ABARES).
ABARES said that the decline in consumption was the result of an increase in seafood exports and a decline in imports that more than offset the increase in domestic production. In 2015/16, Australia exported 62,055 metric tons (MT) of edible fisheries and aquaculture products, an increase of 18,794 MT year-on-year. At the same time, the country imported 222,778 MT of edible seafood, down from 227,612 MT in 2014/15.
In volume terms, Australia’s fishing fleet caught 174,247 MT of products in 2015-16, while its aquaculture sector’s total harvest amounted to 97,046 MT.
The bureau’s consumption figures fall considerably short of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) latest estimate for Australia of 26 kg per person, and said that the difference is because the FAO bases its estimates on whole weight, whereas its estimates are based on processed edible weight. Furthermore, the FAO does not adjust its estimates for Australia to account for sardines used as aquaculture feeds.
Nevertheless, Australia’s per capita consumption of seafood ranked fourth out of the country’s five most consumed animal protein sources, exceeding the consumption of sheep and lamb. Beef, poultry and pork led the country’s protein consumption.
The new report also highlighted that in 2011, the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre, the University of South Australia and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science undertook a survey to determine the species composition of Australian seafood consumption, how frequently seafood is consumed and how prevalent this consumption is in at-home and out-of-home meals.
Findings from the survey showed that Australians were consuming on average 3.1 meals a week that included a seafood component. When extended over a year, it found that the top five most frequently consumed species were shrimp (73 percent of respondents consumed shrimp during the previous year), canned tuna (64 percent), crumbed and battered fish (56 percent), squid (48 percent) and fresh salmon (48 percent).
Reasons provided by survey respondents for consuming seafood included for better health, taste, ease of preparation, diversification from meat consumption and reasonable prices.
