New innovation from Austral Fisheries. Austral Fisheries has announced the launch of a new innovation in consumer-focused supply chain transparency technology, the Karumba Prawns Digital Experience. Powered by OpenSC’s supply chain transparency platform, the Karumba Prawns Digital Experience aims to bring near real-time data to the fingertips of consumers around Australia.
Austral has secured a deal with Woolworths to provide a new product line of 1kg Karumba prawn boxes this Christmas season, with a limited edition of these boxes showcasing the newly released Digital Experience. In a large-retailer Australian first, consumers will be able to view the entire “catch to customer” journey of their sustainably caught Australian prawns, accessible via a QR code located on packaging.
This announcement is the latest in a three-year journey between Austral and OpenSC, which began with the launch of OpenSC in 2019, featuring Austral’s Glacier 51 Toothfish as the flagship product. For Glacier 51, OpenSC’s technology is being used to verify that fishing is occurring outside of MPAs, where it is sustainable to do so and then trace the toothfish from catch to consumer.
This latest experience, now featuring Karumba prawns, provides consumers with blockchain-verified information that their prawns are responsibly caught outside of closure areas. This ensures that vulnerable habitats within the Northern Prawn Fishery are protected and enables prawn stocks to grow and reproduce sustainably.
Austral Fisheries is Australia’s leading integrated commercial fishing company, with a reputation for bringing high quality, sustainably caught seafood products to customers around the world for over 50 years. Austral’s fleet consists of 19 vessels ranging from the sub-Antarctic to the northern tropics.
Each of Austral’s Commonwealth-managed fisheries is certified as sustainable and well-managed by the Marine Stewardship Council, and in 2016 Austral became the first seafood business in the world to be certified as carbon neutral; offsetting the emissions created during their operations. Since 2016, the company has planted over 1 million native trees in Western Australia to make this possible.