Page 5 - Australian Pork Newspaper

From chaos to control: 2005 to 2019
AS you will be aware, Andrew Spencer is go- ing to leave us as CEO in early August.
I’m sure Andrew has covered that, but I thought I’d get my piece in too.
Andrew joined Austral- ian Pork Limited in 2005 and colleagues, both ex- isting and past, who were there then have relayed their memories of that time.
It’s fair to say Andrew’s appointment came at a time of relative chaos. As an industry, we were thinking about taking the government (a major con- tributor of funds) to court.
We subsequently did this and lost 2:1 on appeal in 2006.
The industry had be- come a relatively low- profit one, with growing imports bolstering supply and contributing to lower prices, which were still highly seasonal.
While I didn’t join APL until 2007, judging from how marketing operated internally, APL was, let’s be kind, perhaps a little unstructured (the Policy division appears to be an exception as they success- fully landed the current model code in 2007).
To suggest that Andrew was the right man for the time is to underestimate the fit.
Andrew’s measured, logical, calm and method- ical approach to problem solving helped APL make sustainable progress.
For example, we have moved from a method of choosing R&D pro- jects which essentially focussed on the Board deciding (I hear) to a
Marketing Matters
system where business plans were written, and projects selected by a di- verse group of producers and experts.
As you know, this meth- od is evolving to keep the rigour and add some focus (a smaller number of big- ger projects to make a bigger difference).
In marketing, we moved away from creating a dif- ferent campaign every year that ran for an aver- age period of four to five weeks, which didn’t allow much time to build rap- port with consumers.
We took a leaf out of the PorkStar playbook, chose a campaign (Get some pork on your fork) based on what the consumer (the person with the money) wants and talked about that to some of the people, all the time.
In addition to these im- provements in reasoned choice making, the in- dustry has voluntarily removed gestation stalls for the most part and learnt how to manage group housing, intro- duced an excellent qual- ity assurance scheme, found ways to both man- age on-farm profitability while benefitting the en-
vironment (biogas) and chosen to invest more in APL levies.
Over the course of the past 14 years, the Policy Division has rebuilt re- lationships with the gov- ernment, which I suspect were quite ‘strained’ after the legal battle.
My sense is we are now seen by the government departments as relatively easy to deal with, which has to improve the chances
wants, most of the time. This is backed up with a government relations ethos of ‘when we come to see you, it’s important’. Speaking from the in- side, APL is in a much more consistent and pro- ductive place and that is in large part due to Andrew’s
leadership.
There is a management
cycle called the Control- Challenge-Change model that says in order to chal- lenge you must be under control, and only from challenge can successful change occur.
Now, 2019-20 will be a year of challenging our thinking and changing our industry.
As producers and oth- ers help us shape the next strategic plan, the coming changes should excite us as we embrace them from a position of control.
www.porknews.com.au
Australian Pork Newspaper, July 2019 – Page 5
by PETER HAYDON General Manager Marketing
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Protection and Profit
from START to FINISH
Canadian pork sector
keen to resolve export
issues with China
THE Canadian Food Inspection Agency stopped issuing export certificates to China for all pork and beef products as of June 25, resulting in the suspen- sion of shipments of those products to that nation after the valid- ity of Canadian export certificates were called into question by China.
Officials of both na- tions have remained in close contact regarding the issue and an RCMP criminal investigation is now under way.
Canadian Pork Coun- cil director of Govern- ment and Corporate Affairs Gary Stordy stressed this is in no way a food safety issue but appears to be a situ- ation where Canadian export certificates have essentially been forged.
Gary explained to Farmscape that the situation is being in- vestigated by Canadian officials and criminal agencies.
“We are asking the Canadian government to continue the dia- logue between the two government officials,
the CFIA in Canada and Chinese authori- ties and to keep us informed of the pro- gress,” he said.
“We realise this is go- ing to take some time to resolve.
“We’re hoping it’s weeks rather than months but we under- stand this is a criminal investigation.
“For the Canadian industry, the economic impact, it’s a bit too soon to tell.
“We are watching and monitoring the sys- tem but there are some silver linings.
“Essentially all the product that has been en route or able to be shipped as of June 25 will proceed to market.
“The rest of the prod- uct that has not been prepared or boxed and ready to go to China will be ideally ab- sorbed within other markets.”
Stordy said the tem- porary suspension is not related to any food safety issues but is, frankly, the result of fraudulent paperwork.
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of a relatively small indus- Andrew helped deliver try getting some of what it that control.