Page 1 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Vol 24. No. 10 October 2020 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Melissa Clark-Reynolds says COVID-19 and African swine fever are practice runs for more significant global threats to come.
Futurist challenges pork producers to
be disruption-ready in new podcast
Weathering the COVID storm and strengthening our position
Point of View
by MARGO ANDRAE CEO
NOT only has Aus- tralian Pork Lim- ited weathered the COVID-19 storm remarkably well, it has strengthened its market position.
strengthens our access to our most valuable export market and the increas- ingly important presence Australian pork enjoys in Singapore.
The latest APL-com- missioned Nielsen Ho- mescan data confirms that even as value and volumes in Australia of all fresh meat cat- egories are more than 10 percent higher on a year-on-year basis, pork managed to increase its market share by +0.8 percent in August.
the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows pig- meat imports to Aus- tralia have dropped significantly, while Australian pork exports increased in value and volume.
market terms earlier in the year.
The zoning arrange- ment is comprehensive and covers a range of potential scenarios to minimise trade disrup- tion in the event of an ASF outbreak in Aus- tralia, including en- suring exports can con- tinue from non-affected states or territories if the disease is detected in domestic pigs.
This has translated to fresh pork value growth increasing by 9 percent from July, with volume also up by 9 percent.
The headline statistic out of the ABS data is the decline in import tonnages – in July 2020 we received 7843 tonnes of imported product compared to 16,663 in July 2019, representing a 52.9 percent year-on- year decline.
Despite limited in- ternational freight op- tions, Australian pork exporters increased year-on-year trade for the month of July by 11 percent to 3,645 tonnes, increasing comparative value by 40 percent to $15.1 million.
APL has extended thanks to the Australian and Singaporean gov- ernments for concluding this important arrange- ment, which represents an important win for Singaporean consumers as well as for Australian pork producers.
This is on top of year- on-year growth of 20.6 percent in volume and 27.5 percent in value.
This is an outstanding result for producers, exporters and APL – arising from our collab- oration with state and federal governments to ensure key international supply chains remained open at a critical time.
This has been driven by household de- mand, especially for roast pork and mince, and helped by the in- crease in Australian pork being sourced for smallgoods.
The contrast was even greater on a half-yearly comparison, given January 2020 imports reached 18,700 tonnes.
In contrast to this pos- itive news, it is clear the threat of biosecurity breaches at piggeries by trespassing activists re- mains ongoing.
Retail fresh pork also remains competitively priced compared to other proteins options.
With African swine fever creating protein vacuums across global markets, large volumes of European Union and North American pig- meat are being directed away from Australia.
We should be proud that our efforts ensured Australian pork played a role in reducing food se- curity uncertainty in cru- cial markets such as Sin- gapore, which continues to be our major customer in terms of monthly volume and value – 11,735 tonnes and $67.2 million respectively.
A recent on-farm in- cident in Queensland shows producers need to maintain vigilance as easing COVID-19 restrictions may enable activists to resume il- legal activities.
Our industry should be very proud of these encouraging sales results and the way producers, supply chain businesses and APL have worked to- gether to strengthen Aus- tralian pork’s position, especially amid such sig- nificant market disrup- tion and uncertainty.
In fact, the last time pigmeat imports to Aus- tralia were this low was 2013.
Federal Agriculture Minister David Lit- tleproud’s announce- ment in September of the Australia-Singapore ASF pre-emptive zoning arrangement further
The health and well- being of producers, pig- gery employees and the animals are paramount, and APL will continue to do everything it can to protect our industry from the unacceptable biosecurity and safety risks posed by farm trespassers.
In other very encour- aging news, the latest trade data released by
Exports have been an important outlet in bal- ancing supply and de- mand since COVID-19 first began to dictate
NEW Zealand futurist first independent director a ‘point and laugh’ ap-
Melissa Clark-Reynolds kicks off Australian Pork Limited’s new podcast ‘Next on the Menu’ with confronting words on the topic of COVID-19.
of Beef + Lamb New Zea- land Ltd – Melissa works with companies around the application of new technologies in the face of disruption, with most of her work involving the future of food and agri- culture.
proach to meat alterna- tives, as other food and fibre industries have done when presented with similar disruptions in the past.
The future-focussed podcast is hosted by APL chair Andrew ‘Billy’ Baxter and general man- ager of business and in- novation Mitch Edwards.
Questioned about what emerging opportunities Aussie pig producers should have their eyes on, Melissa highlighted the potential of tapping into markets for collagen and bone broth.
“When we see the future and we don’t agree with it, we don’t like it or we don’t get it – our first response is to mock it.
Melissa compares Af- rican swine fever to COVID-19, saying both pandemics are merely test runs for the next interna- tional economic, health or food-security emergency, which is why what we do and how we learn to live with periods of global volatility pandemics are so important.
“Some industries blew it because they did not take the threat seriously.
The first episode of Next on the Menu features timely observations from Melissa, with messages of wisdom, warning and en- couragement for Austral- ia’s livestock industries.
“I haven’t really seen pork bone broth on the market and I don’t know why?”
The first episode of Next on the Menu will be launched on Friday September 4 and can be found at australianpork. com.au, at anchor.fm/nex tonthemenu, on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts, with new episodes released every Friday fortnight.
As a social entrepre- neur and a professional director – including the
On the topic of alter- native proteins, Melissa cautioned against taking
“In the short term, one of the things I think is a major opportunity is col- lagen,” Ms Clark-Reyn- olds said.
“Ultimately, they didn’t respect the customer enough,” Melissa said.
“There’s a real trend around using the whole animal and we need to think carefully how we can do that.
Co-hosts Billy and Mitch have lined up a range of guests selected to challenge the Australian pork industry, and anyone interested in the future of food and farming.
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