The current catchphrases in the supply chain are transparency, traceability, sustainability, and provenance. Many industries have realised the powerful edge they have over their counterparts who are not practicing these activities, but merely pay them lip service. Concurrently, there is an equally important conversation concerning ESG, and because of the global threats of politics and war there is now an overlap between these activities. In fact, recently much ado has been made about ‘greenwashing’ when an organisation spends time promoting themselves as environmentally friendly, when in fact they literally minimise their impact. So how do these concepts overlap and become integrated, especially in sectors where up till now action has been centred around the 3 core concepts of sustainability involving economic, environmental, and social factors?
Let us consider the Australian seafood industry, who have over the last decade have gone to great lengths to incorporate sustainability outcomes into their supply chains and have focused on connecting with consumers to build trust in their products. This has created visibility to point of origin within specific seafood sectors. Furthermore, this emphasis has given this and other agri-food industries a massive head start when it comes to this trend.
It can be uncomfortable and disruptive for an industry to move to a place of more transparency where ESG commitments are real. How does the seafood industry, and specifically the subset of this industry, aquaculture, utilise and take advantage of this opportunity? This presentation will explore the foundations of the seafood industry and how it has built out the notions of transparency in conjunction with the current ethical sentiments now resonating with the consumer.
What role does the regulator have? What technology options and opportunities are there? What role does a provenance science company have within the supply chain and how does this intersect with the need for demonstration of credentials such as sustainable? There is a need for an even and fair playing field and a form of transparency will be needed to achieve this outcome (see Fig 1). The presentation will use examples from various Australian seafood industries. This will include two aquaculture industry case studies, that have developed a transparency strategy. These industries have placed value on provenance and are committed to building high integrity supply chains to ensure that their products and promises, as well as minimising costs, get through to consumers. In the current climate there is a need to make supply chains less opaque and the seafood industries of Australia are forging this path.