In 2011, 4 Corners released 'A bloody Business' highlighting beef animal welfare in the live-trade industry. The story basically shut down the beef live-trade industry in northern Australia for about 6 months. In 2018, the beef industry was seeking over $600 million in compensation by the forced shut down. The lack of market resilience (i.e. exports can be shut down by either party) exposed the lack of financial resilience in the northern beef industry. One key option strategy to diversify the beef industry was to encourage the development of abattoirs to increase market opportunities. Well the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) has just mothballed its $100 million, 3 year old abattoir, primarily due to supply chain logistics. This should be putting a fear into the northern beef industry. The AACo identified the under-performing non-wagyu cattle supply chain. Beef production in the north is closely tied to the wet season when cattle are fattened and sold. For those that are unaware of the industry read Gleeson, Martin and Mifsud (2012).
While the Live trade industry is still a small component of the value of beef exports (data from: ABARE 2017, Table 12.4 Table) but for the northern region it is the major option for sales. Being limited to one sales option reduces the industries resilience to future shocks. With the recent debacle in the live sheep trade industry, some hard thinking about how suppliers can improve their herds for the abattoir sector is long overdue. Comments are closed.
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AuthorDavid Adamson Archives
February 2019
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