Restaurants will soon be required to tell you where their seafood was caught, under new country of origin rules

Australian hospitality venues will soon be required to tell customers where their seafood was caught after the federal government announced country of origin labelling would be made mandatory for the sector.

The decision comes after $1.6 million was allocated in the 2022 federal budget to expand the use of country of origin labelling, previously only required by supermarkets and retail businesses.

At a meeting between state and federal consumer affairs ministers on Friday, ministers voted unanimously to implement compulsory country of origin labelling in hospitality venues across Australia.

Under the labelling scheme, restaurants, fish and chip shops, restaurants and hospitality venues will need to clearly label if the seafood on their menus originated in Australia (A), internationally (I) or contains a mixture (M).

West Australian commerce minister Sue Ellery said consumers and the fishing industry had been pushing origin classification for some time, but talked down any potential impacts the labelling system would have on small businesses.

“It has been a point of some contention, mainly because the restaurant industry is made up of lots and lots of small businesses,” she said.

“I think the model takes that into account, and consumers have been saying for a considerable period of time they want more transparency.

“They want to make the choice about whether they’re prepared to spend the extra money or not.”

Six-year wait for state action 

The West Australian government had sought to implement country of origin labelling as early as 2017, with then-premier Mark McGowan highlighting the issue as an election commitment.

Despite the six-year wait, Ms Ellery said shops and restaurants would be given enough time to implement the changes.

“I expect there will be a transition period, probably something around 12 months,” she said.

“We’re looking at making sure we are doing education rather than bringing down a big stick on people.”

The announcement has been welcomed by people in the fishing industry, with Fremantle Octopus managing director Glenn Wheeler saying fishers had been lobbying for origin labelling for several years.

“[For] 70 per cent of Australians, seafood is important and oftentimes we don’t know whether we’re eating imported fish or Australian-caught fish,” he said.

“Fortunately, the government listened this time and it’s going to be introduced.”

Cost questions for customers 

Mr Wheeler said there would be a cost impact on some hospitality businesses, but the classification system would also provide more choices for customers.

“Consumers want more transparency; you’d like to know where your fish comes from,” he said.

“Do you want something cheaper that’s perhaps imported, or do you pay a little bit more for something caught just off the coast here in Fremantle?”

While a final date for the AIM labelling is yet to be confirmed, some WA businesses have already implemented origin labelling on their menus.

Clancy’s Fish Pub owner Tom Fisher said with consumer demand outstripping domestic fisheries, concerns about customers turning away from businesses that relied on low-cost imported fish were low.

“I think in a perfect world, every venue would love to have entirely local seafood on their menu, but there are sustainability factors and other factors too,” he said.

“We’ll probably go through about 12 tonnes of snapper on our basic fish and chips over the next Christmas period, which is a huge amount for a local supplier to meet.

“Mum’s not going to spend $80 on a couple of bluebone fillets for their kids, they’re going to get dory or something like that.”

Fishers look to follow wine industry 

The AIM labelling has been seen as a step forward for the industry, but WA Fishing Industry Council chief executive Darryl Hockey said he wanted more specificity in the labelling process.

“We would actually like to see the product put up there to say, this is Argentinian prawns or it’s Vietnamese batter,” he said.

“Just having a tiny little set of brackets in tiny writing that you can’t see in a restaurant, which might just say ‘I’ — I’m not necessarily sure a lot of people will be familiar with that.”

Mr Hockey said the government and industry should be taking a more proactive approach to promoting Australian produce and pointed to the success of the wine industry.

“I’d prefer that the shops came out and really actively promoted something saying, well, ‘this is line-caught dewfish and it’s been caught from Cervantes’,” he said.

“Just like you’re doing in the wine industry, you go to Margaret River and you source local Margaret River wines.

“I think we need to really pump up the tyres of the different provinces that we have in Western Australia.”