Fish lovers favour imports
LOCALLY caught barramundi and prawns are sitting on the wharf as cash-strapped shoppers turn to cheaper seafood.
Retailers are selling cut-price imports and fish-lovers are also turning to cheap local catches of blue salmon and mullet for about $17/kg.
Imported basa fillet and nile perch is also catching the eye of shoppers looking for cheap meals under $10, while local wild barramundi costs them $28.50/kg.
The revelation from fishos comes as the Queensland Seafood Industry Association prepares to launch a $410,000 advertising blitz in Cairns next month in a bid to save the Far North’s local seafood industry.
Cairns Ocean Products owner Stephen Georgouras backs the campaign and says the economy is in "dire straits" with people opting for alternatives that are on par with well-known favourites.
QSIA chief executive officer Martin Hicks says thousands of tonnes of prawns and hundreds of tonnes of barramundi caught around the state is stuck in storage as the import market makes most headway in the struggling economy.
"No one wants to buy them," he said. "A lot of the seafood in restaurants is actually imported.
"We’d like to equate a more efficient supply chain to get the seafood from the fishermen to the consumer.
"It’s really as a result of two things – the price of seafood hasn’t gone up in 20 years because of imports and the economics of fuel, regulation and marine parks."
Mr Georgouras says the campaign can only help the Far Northern industry.
"Instead of buying a fresh local barra fillet, they are buying cheaper Australian lines like a blue salmon fillet which is $17/kg," he said.
"Our fish consumption per head in this country is very low. It could be tripled without anybody eating any great excess of it."
Mr Hicks said there were now large unfished areas from Cairns to the Torres Strait because of a lack of profit in the industry.
He said the push for a resurgence of local products would not bring a seafood price hike.
Share this article
Scales tip towards imports: Cairns Ocean Products owner Stephen Georgouras says locals are shying away from locally caught fish to buy frozen imported product because of cheaper prices.
No hands, helmet or brains
THIS snap of a young woman holding a toddler as she rode a bike down the wrong way of a busy Manunda street is enough to make anyone cringe. more

Sex predator released
A CHILD sex predator caught taking photos of a nine-year-old girl at the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon also had a stash of child porn and convictions for indecent acts.
more
Widow's grief over penalty
FAY Mammone is ready to meet - and maybe even forgive - the teenage motorist whose careless driving killed her fun-loving husband, who would have turned 40 today. more
Con suspect caught
NOTORIOUS fraud suspect John Arthur Edwards could face more than 30 criminal charges when he is eventually brought back to Cairns. more
Cops fear pub grog ban
CLOSING pubs in Cape York indigenous communities would be racist and un-Australian, a Cairns court has heard. more





