A leading environmental stakeholder has scotched Primary Industry Minister Jeremy Rockliff’s claim that certain chefs are boycotting Tasmanian salmon.
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Environment Tasmania was instrumental in compiling the Sustainable Salmon Chefs’ Charter, a mission statement which dictated that a select group of Southern Tasmania’s top chefs required greater accountability and transparency from local salmon producers.
These chefs – including Philippe Leban from MONA’s The Source and David Moyle from Franklin – have said they want the “full pen-to-plate story” of the salmon they purchase – particularly where it has come from, what it has been fed and what the producer is doing to move its pens out of environmentally contentious areas and into offshore and land-based farms.
On Monday, Mr Rockliff equated the charter to a “boycott” of Tasmanian salmon, saying it threatened to “cause severe damage to the salmon industry, costing hundreds of jobs and hitting regional communities across the state”.
But Environment Tasmania strategy director stressed that the charter did not encourage chefs to boycott local salmon.
“The only one currently discussing a boycott is Jeremy Rockliff,” Ms Kelly said.
“By falsely presenting basic calls for transparency, he is attempting to distract attention from the very reasonable solutions - implementing the law in Macquarie Harbour and supporting sustainable growth of a [land-based] and offshore production system.”
She did, however, say that some of the signatories to the charter had said they would not use salmon again until they could be assured that it was coming from a “sustainable production system”.
“The problem for them is at this stage there is no way for them to know if it is coming from Macquarie Harbour or Storm Bay, for example,” Ms Kelly said.
“To suggest that … [wanting] transparency around basic standards amounts to a 'boycott' is inaccurate.”
Mr Rockliff previously called on Environment Tasmania to “condemn” the so-called boycott.
He noted the government was developing a sustainable growth plan for the industry, which would identify grow and no-grow zones.
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