Processors hamstrung by lack of info on livestock numbers: "Transparency goes both ways"

Terry Nolan, from family-owned beef processing and exporting business Nolan's Meats in Gympie; Andrew Simpson, the chief commercial officer at Bindaree Food Group in Inverell and Patrick Hutchinson, the chief executive officer at the Australian Meat Industry Council gave candid insights into the challenges and opportunities in front of their industry right now.

Their overarching message was that there is plenty to be positive about.

The incredible leaps that have been made in cattle breeding and growing have converted to productivity boosts in the processing plant, and increased market demand for the product, that would hold Australian beef in good stead going forward, Mr Simpson said.

Mr Nolan said sometimes, as an industry, we forget what we've done right.

He judged prime cattle at Beef 88, the original Beef Australia expo.

"Back then it was big, horned bullocks clawing each other up the ribs and cows jumping over fences," he said.

"Come back here today and there are no full-mouthed cattle out there. They're all polled or dehorned, they're traceable around the world, raised under the highest animal welfare standards, boast excellent eating quality and have amazing weight-for-age.

"Look how far we've come."

The processor bosses lashed out on the calls for increased transparency throughout the beef supply chain.

They believe it's a subject that has been politicised, both by politicians themselves and also by some industry groups.

"There seems to be this misnomer that transparency only goes one way," Mr Hutchinson said.

"The way in which a processor sends a message about what they want is through market specifications and grids.

"Whatever the brands are, the feeding regimes, how they link - processors put all of that together and the message goes out to fill that order.

"How is that not transparent? They are telling a producer what it is they want and what they will pay for it, how and when they want it and where it will go.

"The other side is that this is the only mechanism processors have to determine where these livestock that they want actually are."

Processors were currently hamstrung by a severe lack of market information around livestock availability, the men said.

"Why is it that this country is in a position where Meat & Livestock Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics can not agree on how much livestock is actually out there, let alone what is coming," Mr Hutchinson said.

"When we ask this question, it emerges there is limited faith in the responses that producers give in surveys.

"At the end of the day it has to be a partnership. If you want more market information, start by giving it."

Mr Nolan said while ever there was competition among buyers of cattle, and choice for the producer as to where to send cattle, the transparency debate was over-rated.

"Don't forget when we had an 1100 cent EYCI (Eastern Young Cattle Indicator) and the supermarkets had to battle to get supply, they absorbed a lot of losses, as did processors," he said.

"No one was calling for transparency on-farm when the EYIC was that high."

Mr Simpson said it seemed there was "a long list of producers who believe processors are a secret guild of gold makers".

"Along the way, there have been producer groups who've had a go at what we do and did not continue when they realised how tough it was.

"This is a long-term game for us and there are periods of three or four years of sustained losses we have to endure.

"Ultimately, the producer and processor are tied together."

While the Albanese Government is coming under heavy fire from many across the agriculture sector, beef processors have a lot of praise for the job that has been done on market access, particularly re-opening channels with China and walking away from a deal with the European Union that would have been dreadful for red meat.

"There are two components to the China challenge for us," Mr Hutchinson said.

"There are the eight facilities who remain suspended and then there is the potential left untapped because we haven't seen the materialisation of a joint statement Australia and China signed in 2017 agreeing to the accreditation of at least 15 new facilities to supply the Chinese market.

"It's all money left on the table."

It was one thing to open a new market, another for it to be competitive and therefore convert to opportunity for Australian beef, the three said.

The United Kingdom was a good example.

Despite the UKFTA opening significant doors, this market was struggling to attract Australian product at the moment because it could not compete with many other buyers around the world.