Prospects for Promotion of ″Wild″ Shrimp in Japan:Implications for Australian Exporters Available to Purchase

Since 1965 Japan has been a significant market for Australian“wild‐caught” shrimp taken from fisheries off northern Australia. Recent developments in shrimp culture, however, have resulted in the entry of high‐quality, lower‐priced shrimp into the Japanese market from North‐east and South‐east Asia, displacing the Australian product from its previously competitive position. Australian (and other)“wild” shrimp producers now face a situation of falling prices, rising costs, and dramatically different shrimp consumption and distribution patterns in Japan. The response of Australian producers has been to divert the product elsewhere to less “difficult”markets (e.g. the USA) and to form the Australian Prawn Promotion Association (APPA). The aim of this association is to implement a costly($A1,000,000) promotional campaign in Japan aimed at Japanese consumers with the hope that it will reduce the price elasticity of demand for Australian product and allow producers to raise prices. Here,information gained from a review of the literature on primary product promotion, and primary data gained from interviews with “key informants” in the Japanese shrimp trade are used to assess the prospects of the proposal.