Australian salmon farmer Huon has launched a new frozen line of salmon fillets in Woolworths stores nationwide in response to increased demand for frozen food as a result of pandemic lockdowns. It is the first time Huon-branded frozen product has been widely available in a supermarket.
The product range, "Huon 'Salmon to Go," consists of hand-filleted, skin-on portions of salmon, individually wrapped in 700-gram packs. It has also launched an 880-gram frozen side of salmon, seasoned with lemon pepper.
"One of the reasons why we introduced the range now was in response to COVID, providing consumers, in times of lockdown, the convenience of having healthy salmon available at home," Corporate Communications and Community Relations Manager Pene Snashall told IntraFish.
The salmon used in the line is approved by the Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and the logo is clearly featured on the packaging.
According to Huon General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Callan Paske, Huon is the first and only seafood producer in Australia to join the RSPCA’s Approved Farming Scheme.
“All farmers, land or sea-based, should consider their stock as living, feeling beings and Huon is proud to have met the high standards of the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme every year since 2018,” said Paske.
In Australia, the most commonly eaten frozen seafood is catfish fillets from farms in Vietnam, according to the Australian Department of Agriculture's Seafood Trade Report, but Paske believes Huon's new line will provide Australian consumers with a locally farmed frozen fish alternative.
"Australian consumers are pretty savvy and have come to expect local provenance for their food," Snashall told IntraFish. "We think consumers will be particularly keen to purchase locally farmed Huon Salmon, from a Tasmanian company that is still majority owned by the husband/wife team who established it."
Huon has placed a limited range within Woolworths but may expand at a later point, depending on consumer interest. "Production will be demand driven," said Snashall.
