SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL AUSTRALIAN FISH FARMS
We at Aquatic Solutions have always supported local breeders and Australian producers where possible and have some fantastic suppliers that produce some really great stock of an excellent standard and far superior to many imported lines of fish.
Since we in Australia have such a limited range of fish permitted for import, we are hugely dependant on local breeders to provide various species to broaden our range and I would like to personally thank them for all their efforts.
In order to increase transparency throughout our stock list we have decided to disclose all lines of fish that are locally produced. In the past we would use tags such as local and import to identify a fish’s origin in certain lines. We have recently implemented this throughout the entire list allowing you to select locally produced and sourced stock if desired. We are also slowly updating this on our website as well.
This means that you as a customer have the choice to select and support our local producers where possible and thus directly supporting the Australian ornamental fish industry.
We really need to promote and support local production of fish in Australia which seems to be a dying pastime as many large-scale ornamental fish farms are up for sale or looking at closing their doors. It's a very sad state of affairs where the red tape and protocols required to setup and establish a legitimate ornamental fish farm are prohibitively difficult to overcome and this is hindering new blood entering this field. Also, newcomers looking to take over existing ornamental fish farms are apprehensive of the species they can legitimately produce especially since there will be scrutiny of aquaculture permits and such during the changeover period.
There are so many grey areas that really need to be formally addressed so that ornamental fish farming can be built on solid foundations. This really needs to be addressed in detail another time.
Sorry for this lengthy article but another point that I would like to mention while on the topic of Australian ornamental fish producers is the recent addition to the allowable list of fish suitable for import. I have mixed feelings of the recent addition of electric yellows to the list. On one hand I am so happy that our somewhat stagnant list of allowable imports has finally had an addition, but this has come a high cost, instantly devaluing the local price paid for electric yellows which are already widely available in Australia. There is a myriad of other fish species that would have been great candidates to be added to the allowable list of fish suitable for import. Rumour has it that it cost about $15k to fulfil the required environmental impact statement and such to get this particular fish on the list.
Recently some wholesalers have been selling imported electric yellows for less than the price paid to local producers. We at Aquatic Solutions did some trials importing electric yellows initially, but after discovering that some of the bloodlines coming in from overseas were of a poor, inferior and substandard quality (currently being sold off as seconds) we stopped ordering them. The quality of the electric yellows being produced in Australia by our local suppliers is of a very high standard and I believe far superior to imported stock. Many of our local suppliers have now got surplus stockpiles of electric yellows that they cannot move unless they slash their prices to compete with the price point of their imported counterparts and as a result will soon no longer produce them. I again urge our customers to please support our local Australian suppliers and back us on our decision. We have revised all our prices of our electric yellows to make them more attractive in support of our local breeders.
Since we in Australia have such a limited range of fish permitted for import, we are hugely dependant on local breeders to provide various species to broaden our range and I would like to personally thank them for all their efforts.
In order to increase transparency throughout our stock list we have decided to disclose all lines of fish that are locally produced. In the past we would use tags such as local and import to identify a fish’s origin in certain lines. We have recently implemented this throughout the entire list allowing you to select locally produced and sourced stock if desired. We are also slowly updating this on our website as well.
This means that you as a customer have the choice to select and support our local producers where possible and thus directly supporting the Australian ornamental fish industry.
We really need to promote and support local production of fish in Australia which seems to be a dying pastime as many large-scale ornamental fish farms are up for sale or looking at closing their doors. It's a very sad state of affairs where the red tape and protocols required to setup and establish a legitimate ornamental fish farm are prohibitively difficult to overcome and this is hindering new blood entering this field. Also, newcomers looking to take over existing ornamental fish farms are apprehensive of the species they can legitimately produce especially since there will be scrutiny of aquaculture permits and such during the changeover period.
There are so many grey areas that really need to be formally addressed so that ornamental fish farming can be built on solid foundations. This really needs to be addressed in detail another time.
Sorry for this lengthy article but another point that I would like to mention while on the topic of Australian ornamental fish producers is the recent addition to the allowable list of fish suitable for import. I have mixed feelings of the recent addition of electric yellows to the list. On one hand I am so happy that our somewhat stagnant list of allowable imports has finally had an addition, but this has come a high cost, instantly devaluing the local price paid for electric yellows which are already widely available in Australia. There is a myriad of other fish species that would have been great candidates to be added to the allowable list of fish suitable for import. Rumour has it that it cost about $15k to fulfil the required environmental impact statement and such to get this particular fish on the list.
Recently some wholesalers have been selling imported electric yellows for less than the price paid to local producers. We at Aquatic Solutions did some trials importing electric yellows initially, but after discovering that some of the bloodlines coming in from overseas were of a poor, inferior and substandard quality (currently being sold off as seconds) we stopped ordering them. The quality of the electric yellows being produced in Australia by our local suppliers is of a very high standard and I believe far superior to imported stock. Many of our local suppliers have now got surplus stockpiles of electric yellows that they cannot move unless they slash their prices to compete with the price point of their imported counterparts and as a result will soon no longer produce them. I again urge our customers to please support our local Australian suppliers and back us on our decision. We have revised all our prices of our electric yellows to make them more attractive in support of our local breeders.