Why beef must listen to consumers

Richard Rains, the former chief executive officer of trading company Sanger Australia and director of organic supply company Arcadian Meat Co, told the Yugilbar field day this morning that the industry needed to increasingly listen to consumers and meet their expectations.

"There continues to be a disconnect between producers and processors," Mr Rains said.

"Consumer behaviour is based on trust and consumers are saying they want food production systems based on integrity and ethics.

"Beef is the highest priced protein in the world. But selling product based on price is only a race to the bottom. We have to shift to delivering what the consumer demands."

Mr Rains said red meat retailers also needed a point of difference to compete against other proteins.

MSA and other grading systems have enabled brands to be underpinned and delivered consistency to producers.

However, the strongest demand was for organic, natural and particularly for beef from sustainable production systems.

"There is currently up to a 40 per cent premium for organic beef carcases," Mr Rains said.

"Price is not the barrier when consumers are presented with the product they actually want."

He urged industry to support the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in its efforts to develop a definition of a sustainable beef industry.

"Sustainability is based on three things: economic, environmental and social expectations, and it is dynamic and keeps evolving," Mr Rains said.

"We have to have a definition of sustainability that suits the industry and all the players in it."

The Roundtable represents 50 global organisations. It has been heavily criticised by sectors of the beef industry because of a perception that it is being driven by the controversial environmental group WWF.