2009/708 Abalone product integrity and quality assurance

By Dean Lisson

The majority of the Australian abalone industry recognises that domestic and export customers expect appropriate quality management systems to be in place for abalone supplies.

However, some operators do not understand the risks to quality posed by their production systems and the potential risk to Australia’s market reputation, share and the price of the product. It is likely that increasing domestic and global competition may lead to subsequent decreasing returns to Australian abalone stakeholders if a Quality Assurance system is not implemented and adhered to.

The need for a nationally consistent approach to quality assurance of wild caught product in Australia has long been recognised by the Abalone Council Australia. This project aimed to establish an ACA Ltd Quality Assurance and Product Integrity Program through the supply chain that is applied to all legally harvested Australian abalone. They also developed a training package that may be utilised by any of the state peak abalone bodies to roll out the code to divers, deckhands, mother-boat skippers, processors and transporters across all abalone producing states within Australia.