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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 June 2026
WORLD OCEAN DAY CAMPAIGN AIMS TO GET MORE AUSTRALIAN TUNA ON AUSTRALIAN TABLES
Award winning Australian seafood brand Little Tuna and East Coast Tuna Co. have launched 1 in 100, a national campaign with a simple goal: by 2030, one in every 100 tins of tuna eaten in Australia will be Australian.
CAIRNS, QUEENSLAND – Australians eat almost one million tins of tuna every day. Yet only around one in every thousand of those tins contains Australian tuna. Ten years ago, that number was effectively zero.
For a country surrounded by ocean and home to some of the world's best managed tuna fisheries, Little Tuna and East Coast Tuna Co. believe that's a statistic worth talking about.
Today on World Ocean Day, the Cairns based brands are launching 1 in 100, a national campaign aimed at increasing Australian tuna's share of the home market from one in every 1,000 tins to one in every 100 tins by 2030.
For founder Kate Lamason, the campaign began with a simple realisation.
Like many Australians, she assumed the tuna lining supermarket shelves was Australian. It wasn't until her husband Rowan, a commercial tuna fisher, pointed out that none of it was sourced locally that she realised how disconnected Australians had become from their own tuna industry.
That discovery led to the creation of Little Tuna in 2015 and later East Coast Tuna Co., both founded with the goal of giving Australian fishing families a place on Australian shelves.
"When we started, Australian tuna wasn't really part of the conversation," Lamason said.
"Today Australian tuna can be found in hundreds of stores around the country. That's something we're incredibly proud of but we think the best part of the story is still ahead of us.”
"We're not trying to take over the tuna aisle. We just think Australian tuna deserves a place in it."
The campaign is built around a surprisingly simple idea.
Australia has approximately 11 million households. If just one in four households purchased one additional Australian tin of tuna each year, the 1 in 100 target would be within reach.
"We believe Australians should have the opportunity to choose Australian tuna," Lamason said. "That's what this campaign is about. If just one in four households added one extra Australian tin to their trolley each year, we'd hit the target. One extra tin. One household. Once a year. That’s it"
For the Lamason family, the campaign is deeply personal. Between commercial fishing, seafood processing and seafood retail, the family has spent more than 35 years working in the Australian seafood industry.
Over the past decade, Little Tuna has worked alongside fishing families, vessel operators and seafood businesses throughout Queensland, helping tell the stories behind Australian tuna. Today the brands proudly work with 4 Seas Tuna, Total Fisheries, Sniper Fishing and Upscale Seafoods, connecting Australians with sustainably caught tuna and the people who bring it from the ocean to the table.
Behind every Australian tin sits an industry that supports fishing families, regional communities, processors, transport operators, retailers and coastal economies around the country.
"The campaign might have our name on it, but it really belongs to the people behind the fish," Lamason said.
"We've spent years on boats, on wharves, in processing factories and around kitchen tables with fishing families. They're hardworking, passionate people who care deeply about producing great food."
"We think their story deserves to be told."
Reaching 1 in 100 would mean millions more Australian meals containing locally caught tuna, more value retained in regional communities and greater visibility for one of Australia's most sustainable food industries.
The campaign also aligns with this year's World Ocean Day message and the Marine Stewardship Council's theme that sustainable fishing means more - more healthy oceans, more resilient fisheries, more regional jobs and more seafood for future generations.
As Australia's 2026 MSC Best Sustainable Seafood Brand, Little Tuna believes growing the visibility of sustainably caught Australian tuna is an opportunity to connect more Australians with the people, fisheries and communities behind their seafood, while supporting the long term future of one of Australia's most sustainable food industries.
That connection between consumers and fishers has become a defining feature of both Little Tuna and East Coast Tuna Co. Through QR-code traceability, customers can trace their tuna back to the vessel, fishery and fishing family responsible for the catch.
Progress towards the 1 in 100 goal will be measured publicly each year, with updated figures released on World Tuna Day, 2 May.
While the target is ambitious, Lamason points out that the industry has already come a long way.
"When we started, the number was effectively zero. Today Australian tuna is finally on the scoreboard and that's something every person who has bought a jar, a tin, shared a post, told a friend or backed Australian tuna should be proud of. We didn't get to one in a thousand alone and we won't get to one in a hundred alone either. But if there's one thing we've learned over the last ten years, it's that Australians love backing local. That's why we genuinely believe Australia can get to one in a hundred.”
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