Did you know 99 per cent of the 50,000 tonnes of tinned tuna Australians eat annually is imported? And less than a third is certified as sustainably fished?
Well, as a nation, we consume 336 million servings of the affordable, nutritious form of protein annually, with the product sourced from foreign waters.
When Kate Lamason learnt about Australia’s reliance on imports in 2015, her husband Rowan was commercial tuna fishing off the Cairns coast using cameras, electronic logbooks and vessel monitoring systems to meet our domestic fishery’s strict sustainability standards.
She was shocked at the double standard.
“Rowan is a fisherman and he was catching incredible, sustainable, high quality fish and yet we’re at home eating tuna from overseas!
“So, in Australia there are 37 tuna fishers complying with rules and regulations to ensure the future of the fishery and working hard for their families and they’re not even on our supermarket shelves.
“It doesn’t sit well with me at all so we started manufacturing our own.”
In 2015 Rowan and Kate founded Little Tuna using their sustainably-caught wild Australian albacore tuna. They taste-tested the recipes developed in their kitchen on willing friends and family.
“We’re very fussy fish eaters,” Kate said. “And we went through a lot of trial and error trying to get the perfect salt content and the perfect oil content to showcase the amazing fresh flavour of the fish.”
The Australian-owned and sourced food manufacturing business sells its high-end tuna in glass jars – “so you can see the high quality and beautiful fresh fish inside“ – online and in more than 150 health food, seafood and independent stores across the country.
Ms Lamason admits that running a 100pc Australian manufacturing business presents challenges.
“It’s not an easy place to manufacture or to even have a business that is 100pc Australian,“ she said.
“Australians look at price points a lot, so we constantly have to be very aware of what we’re spending to ensure that we’re still remaining profitable and sustainable.“
Last month, Ms Lamason was named the winner of Queensland’s 2024 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award.
She said the recognition had fuelled her ambition to boost the profile of tuna fishers and the sustainability of the local tuna industry.
“The award is a huge opportunity and a massive honour,” she said.
“We see this as a huge opportunity to have our fishing families recognised and instill trust in our customers that they look after the ocean, that our brand is worth their money.
“Over the past 18 months the cost of living has increased significantly and we’ve noticed people being more conscious of spending and want to understand where their money is going.
“Our end goal is to have processed Australian tuna on supermarket shelves.
“We know there’s a journey ahead but we are certainly looking forward to having some productive discussions with supermarkets.”
