Politicians lukewarm on seafood labelling

Demands for a 'country of origin' labelling laws to be extended to restaurants and other food outlets have received a lukewarm response from decision makers.

The Coalition's fisheries spokesperson Richard Colbeck has been attending the prawn and barramundi farmers conference at Cairns in Queensland, where farmers have appealed for truth in seafood labelling.

Senator Colbeck says the industry's argument for mandatory labelling laws on the food service sector needs to be balanced against the potential impact.

"It depends on how much change and variation they have to make to their menus and at a point in time when the entertainment, the restaurant and catering sector is doing it as tough as everybody else in the economy at the moment, any additional cost becomes an additional burden," he said.

"I don't think the Northern Territory mechanism would work nationally, because it's not consistent across all products, but I'll have those conversations with the industry and we'll keep talking about it."

Senator Colbeck says he's not surprised to have received a survey of customer attitudes showing 90 per cent of the population would like to have better country of origin labelling.

"The sad reality is when most people go to get their wallet out and make the purchase only about 10 per cent make that value choice," he said.

"If you look at what's happening in the broader food manufacturing sector across Australia at the moment and see the number of businesses who are going out of business or closing down because of the cost of business, if I were to impose another cost onto them no matter how marginal, that potentially tips them over the edge."

Source: ABC Rural News, 1 August 2013