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Value of fisheries production

Australia's major commercially accessed species are prawns, rock lobster, abalone, tuna, other fin fish, scallops, and edible and pearl oysters. Australian fishing operators concentrate their efforts on estuarine, coastal, pelagic (surface) species and demersal (bottom living) species that occur on the continental shelf.

Table 17.5 shows the quantity and table 17.6 the gross value of the production of the Australian commercial fishing industry. Australian fisheries production covers total production from both Commonwealth and State managed fisheries and from aquaculture. Gross value of production is the value placed on recorded production at the wholesale price realised in the principal markets. In general, the principal markets are the metropolitan markets in each State. However, in cases where commodities are consumed locally or where they become raw material for a secondary industry, these points are treated as the principal markets.

The gross value of Australian fisheries production (including aquaculture) rose by 13% ($261m) in 1999-2000, to $2.3b (table 17.7) following on from a 9% increase the previous year. Contributing to this latest rise was a 39% increase in the value of abalone production and a 30% increase in the value of rock lobster catches (table 17.8). Other significant increases in the value of production occurred in tuna (16%) and oysters (16%). In quantity terms there was a 7% fall over the year in Australian fisheries production to 221,000 tonnes, with the falls in prawn production (17%) and other fin fish (10%), more than cancelling the increases in oysters (21%) and rock lobster (5%) (table 17.9).

Commonwealth fisheries accounted for 18% of the total value of Australian fisheries production in 1999-2000 (table 17.6). Commonwealth fisheries are those managed for the Commonwealth Government by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority. State Governments manage inland fisheries and aquaculture, in addition to those salt water fisheries not managed by the Commonwealth. The distribution of the management of fisheries between the Commonwealth and the States is determined following consultations held under the Offshore Constitutional Settlement Agreement.

17.5 AUSTRALIAN FISHERIES PRODUCTION, By State(a) - 1999-2000
	NSW tonnes	Vic. tonnes	Qld tonnes	SA tonnes	WA tonnes	Tas. tonnes	NT tonnes	C’wealth(b) tonnes	Aust. tonnes
Fish
Tuna	31	-	-	7,803	33	-	8	(c)13,473	(d)16,218
Other	9,734	4,207	10,920	8,406	16,164	15,742	3,606	(e)44,521	113,302
Total	9,765	4,207	10,920	16,209	16,197	15,742	3,614	57,994	129,520
Crustaceans
Prawns	2,353	104	8,687	2,416	4,474	-	-	(f)7,830	25,864
Rock lobster	113	543	463	2,721	14,599	1,466	-	359	20,264
Other	594	76	3,568	644	1,054	78	998	262	7,274
Total	3,060	723	12,718	5,781	20,127	1,544	999	8,452	53,403
Molluscs
Abalone	305	1,418	na	889	331	2,565	-	-	5,508
Scallops	-	346	7,398	-	2,756	423	2	22	10,947
Oysters	5,584	-	143	2,494	-	4,748	-	-	12,969
Other	1146	1145	209	1938	985	807	1,043	(g)1,447	8,720
Total	7,035	2,909	7,750	5,321	4,072	8,543	1,045	1,469	38,144
Total quantity	19,860	7,839	31,388	27,648	40,396	25,829	5,657	67,915	221,405
(a) Includes estimates of aquaculture production (except Northern Territory); excludes production of pearl oysters, and hatchery and inland commercial fishery production. (b) Total includes all fisheries under federal jurisdiction. (c) Includes the southern bluefin, eastern tuna and billfish, southern and western tuna fisheries. (d) Total has been adjusted to allow for southern bluefin tuna caught in the Commonwealth southern bluefin tuna fishery, as an input to farms in South Australia. (e) Includes the fish component of Commonwealth fisheries, plus catch from Commonwealth fisheries that cannot be disaggregated due to confidentiality reasons. (f) Includes the northern prawn, Torres Strait, south east and other fisheries. (g) Includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish from the south east and Great Australian Bight fisheries, and pearl oyster from the Torres Strait fishery.
Source: 'Australian Fisheries Statistics, 2000', Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

17.12 DESTINATION OF EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN FISHERIES PRODUCTS(a)
	1997-98		1998-99		1999-2000
Country	$m	%	$m	%	$m	%
Japan	483	32.8	462	30.8	680	34.6
Hong Kong (SAR of China)	245	16.6	248	16.6	368	18.7
Taiwan	179	12.2	170	11.4	211	10.7
United States of America	110	7.5	144	9.6	187	9.5
Singapore	41	2.8	43	2.9	60	3.1
China	120	8.2	104	6.9	42	2.1
Switzerland	9	0.6	31	2.1	26	1.3
France	6	0.4	14	0.9	21	1.1
Spain	13	0.9	23	1.5	19	1.0
New Zealand	14	1.0	14	0.9	16	0.8
United Kingdom	5	0.3	7	0.5	13	0.7
Thailand	14	1.0	11	0.7	8	0.4
Other	235	16.0	227	15.2	314	16.0
Total	1 473	100.0	1 498	100.0	1 964	100.0
(a) Includes non-edible products (e.g. marine fats and oils, fish meal, pearls and ornamental fish). Excludes sea products landed abroad directly from the high seas. Source: ABS data available on request, International Trade database.

17.13 SOURCE OF AUSTRALIAN IMPORTS OF FISHERIES PRODUCTS(a)
	1997-98		1998-99		1999-2000
Country	$m	%	$m	%	$m	%
Thailand	218	26.6	237	26.9	241	22.0
New Zealand	128	15.6	143	16.3	156	14.3
United States of America	59	7.2	61	6.9	75	6.9
Japan	33	4.0	26	3.0	34	3.1
South Africa	26	3.2	33	3.8	34	3.1
Malaysia	28	3.4	25	2.8	32	2.9
Viet Nam	22	2.7	32	3.6	32	2.9
Indonesia	18	2.2	19	2.2	25	2.3
Canada	21	2.5	27	3.1	24	2.2
Chile	23	2.8	21	2.4	23	2.1
Taiwan	20	2.4	22	2.5	21	1.9
Peru	7	0.9	10	1.1	16	1.5
India	11	1.3	15	1.7	15	1.4
China	13	1.6	13	1.5	14	1.3
Hong Kong (SAR of China)	6	0.7	11	1.3	13	1.2
Singapore	16	2.0	11	1.3	12	1.1
Other	172	20.9	175	19.8	325	29.8
Total	820	100.0	880	100.0	1 092	100.0
(a) Includes non-edible products (e.g. marine fats and oils, fish meal, pearls and ornamental fish). Source: ABS data available on request, International Trade data base.