Consumption of white flesh fish (WFF) in Australia is increasing, and this trend is predicted to continue. Local fish consumption, however, currently relies on 54% imported product. This poses several challenges in meeting increasing demand, including supply chain vulnerability, loss of market access, high food miles, questionable provenance, and biosecurity risks.
There is, therefore, an exciting opportunity to strengthen and diversify the Australian aquaculture WFF industry. CSIRO has strategically invested in exploring pompano culture to support domestic WFF production. Pompano is a robust, fast-growing fish with high fillet yield and excellent flesh qualities with proven commercialisation overseas. In January 2023, the pompano project achieved a major milestone with the first spawning and juvenile rearing in captivity. This now presents the opportunity and means to produce fish for commercial evaluation.
The aims of this project, however, goes beyond just new WFF species development. With increasing production, there is a rapidly growing need to develop novel, affordable farming and processing technologies to ensure sustainable growth. The current Australian WFF industries are highly successful and are increasing production with a high level of biological and economic knowledge. Developing novel technologies, that can support current production, such as waste utilisation, however, requires significant investment and access to an incredibly diverse range of capabilities, resources, and expertise. CSIRO, through this WFF project, and its diverse research capacity such as biotechnology, energy systems, and food innovation, plans to evaluate and refine technologies with the aim of finding solutions to promote cost-effective sustainable farming