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Students land $10,000 seafood scholarships
Two University of the Sunshine Coast Honours students have landed $10,000 scholarships from the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to study the nation’s prawn farming industry.
Chelsey Parish, 22, of Caloundra will investigate the export readiness of Australian prawn farmers, while Hannah O'Brien, 21, of Maleny will assess the relationships and communication along the supply chain to local seafood outlets.
The Australian Seafood CRC awarded the competitive scholarships following applications by the students’ Honours supervisors, International Business lecturers Drs Leone Cameron and Joanne Freeman.
Dr Cameron said Hannah’s research would build on a previous study of prawn farmers and investigate the relationships between the different parts of the supply chain – from prawn farmers to wholesalers, retailers and customers.
“The objective of the project is to identify critical factors involved in building the relationships and influencing purchasing decisions, and whether there is a gender influence in these relationships,” she said.
“The prawn farming industry will be able to use this information to assess the effectiveness of their own supply chain relationship and implement any necessary improvements. It will also inform the development of any new market repositioning strategies.”
Dr Freeman said Chelsey’s research project would identify the factors that contribute to the export readiness, or propensity, of regional prawn farmers.
She said the project would produce a list of factors that impact on the export propensity of Australian seafood producers.
“It will highlight the relevant level of influence that each factor has on a firm’s export propensity, and create a model of export propensity that can be adopted by seafood producers looking to export,” she said.
Both academics said the research projects would help boost the Australian prawn farming industry which operates in a highly competitive global market.
Chelsey and Hannah have both just completed dual Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Business degrees at USC, with Chelsey majoring in Communication (Japanese) and International Business, and Hannah majoring in Design and Marketing. They will graduate in early April.
Chelsey hails from Cairns, and was school captain at Cairns State High School, while Hannah is a graduate of Siena College at Sippy Downs.
— Terry Walsh