{"id":550438,"date":"2026-03-19T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550438\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:26:09","slug":"rising-fuel-costs-putting-pressure-on-australias-seafood-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550438\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising fuel costs putting pressure on Australia’s seafood industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rising fuel costs are putting fishermen under pressure, with fears the price increase could impact Easter seafood.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffWallis Lake Fishermen’s Co-Op general manager Suzie McEnallay from Tuncurry in New South Wales<\/a> said her business has temporarily stopped all fuel supply to the general boating public due to fuel supply concerns.<\/p>\n

“Everyday it’s just \ufeffa worry, we don’t know where our fuel supply is coming from,” McEnallay said.<\/p>\n

\"RisingRising fuel costs are putting fishermen under pressure, with fears the price increase could impact Easter seafood.\ufeff (9News)<\/p>\n

“We’ve had to ration our fishermen to \ufeff500 litres of fuel a day in their boats.<\/p>\n

“This has been a huge impact for them, they have to really think about \ufeffthe days that they’re picking to go to work, the distance they travel, it’s just been a real drama.”<\/p>\n

McEnallay said fuel companies were under pressure with their supply, which meant the distribution to the co-op was unknown.<\/p>\n

“\ufeffWe’ve literally been told ‘you just need to protect your stock at all costs’, so our fuel tank is just for our working fishing boats,” she said.<\/p>\n

“\ufeffWe’ve had to say no to the travelling tuna boats that would usually travel up and down the coast from Queensland down south.<\/p>\n

“That’\ufeffs a huge cost to them but it’s also a huge cost to us, we won’t get their run load, they can’t get their fuel from us, we just really have to support our local fishermen.”<\/p>\n

\"LongLong queues for petrol at a Sydney service station. (Peter Rae)<\/p>\n

McEnallay said fuel prices went up 65 per cent overnight\ufeff.<\/p>\n

\ufeff”Fisherman are renowned for being price takers, they just get dealt the price that they return in the general market,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everybody \ufeffelse can put on the extra cost the fuel, bit difficult for fisherman, their prices generally won’t go up, you’ll see prices rise through wholesale and retail outlets.<\/p>\n

“\ufeffWe’re here just to support the fishermen to make sure they can still work, but it’s going to be a really tough gig for them to get through easter and the coming months.”<\/p>\n

“Before this \ufeffwhole war started, we were paying around $1.60, $1.70,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We bought it last week for $2.80, that’s diesel and unleaded, so that’s massive.”<\/p>\n

McEnallay said the co-op didn’t put on a big surcharge for its fishermen.<\/p>\n

“It’s 10 cents a litre and that barely covers the cost of running it, and it doesn’t,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It just helps them get to work, so it’s just hard, all co-ops up and down the coast, all fishermen.<\/p>\n

“I’m talking to guys who don’t have a local co-op outlet that are relying on the supply of the fuel trucks themselves and they’re not guaranteed anything.<\/p>\n

“I can’t even ring and say ‘look, I’ve got some tuna boats coming in two weeks’ time, can I pre-book some fuel?’\ufeff, giving notice, it’s just a no.<\/p>\n

“They just can’t be guaranteed they’re going to get that supply.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Victoria’s fishing industry is calling on the state government to introduce a fuel subsidy to keep vessels and businesses afloat.<\/p>\n

Some fishermen fear they will be forced to leave their boats at bay, which could bring commerical fishing to a standstill before Easter.\ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising fuel costs are putting fishermen under pressure, with fears the price increase could impact Easter seafood.\ufeff \ufeffWallis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-550438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}