The Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries together with the Australian Prawn Farmers Association will this month launch the Love Australian Prawns campaign which encourages Australians to choose local prawns, and consume them year round.
According to data extracted from an ABARES report, Australians only consume an average of 24 local prawns each year, with 40 percent eaten during Christmas. The Love Australian Prawns encourages Australian’s to ‘redefine’ their idea of ‘celebration’ and include prawns on more occasions.
“As an industry we want to encourage people to eat more Australian prawns. Australians think they’re the seafood kings, but our country doesn’t rank in the top 20 highest seafood consuming countries worldwide,” Says Graeme Stewart, executive officer of the Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries.
“If people enjoy local prawns more often and it generates more demand year-round, it significantly helps Australia’s regional communities and that’s good for all Aussies.”
Executive officer of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, Helen Jenkins said that the campaign was not aimed at encouraging consumers to eat local prawns every night, but instead to include them in meals more often.
“Aussies are passionate about prawns. While people admit they don’t eat them often enough, people say prawns are special – they don’t want them to be just another meat on a dinner plate,” said Jenkins.
“They told us ‘don’t mess with the prawn’. As an industry, we naturally think prawns deserve to have pride of place more often. That’s the heart of the Love Australian Prawns campaign.