AUSTRALIA-BUILDING AN EVEN BETTER NAME IN THE GLOBAL BEEF INDUSTRY.
On-farm food safety, the National Livestock Identification System, and eating-quality assurance programs such as Meat Standards Australia have placed Aussie beef at the top of the list of many importers, according to Meat & Livestock Australia chairman Don Heatley.
And while there is a bottleneck of beef in Korea and Japan in cold storage bought at higher prices, he expects this to clear in the next couple of months and the benefits of the lower $A to be seen with a kick in cattle prices here.
"The value of the $A is relatively low at the moment but it is being captured in the marketplace - importers can’t move product so they can’t buy product," he said.
Speaking at the Red Meat - Love Me Tender forum at last week’s South East Field Days at Lucindale, Mr Heatley, a North Queensland beef producer, said despite the global economic crisis it was comforting to know the fundamentals of the industry were in good shape and there would be no repeat of the 1974-1978 beef industry collapse.
Japan was Australia’s largest beef market by volume and value, and he expected demand would remain strong underpinned by the traceability and eating quality standards which Australia’s main competitor, the United States, was unable to offer.
"They trust what we are doing in the paddock because as producers we are prepared to sign a statutory declaration (Livestock Producer Assurance) and they believe in our animal traceability, and thirdly the eating quality we can offer," he said.