PROMOTING Australia’s existing sustainability credentials to a worldwide audience will be the focus of a new red meat industry taskforce, formed to oppose intervention by the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) in the Australian market.
A 'square table' meeting of 27 ‘heavy hitters’ of the beef industry - chaired by former AACo managing director David Farley - wrapped up in Brisbane on Friday with consensus reached on catering to consumer demands on sustainable supply in the Australian market.
Industry stakeholders have reacted strongly to GRSB plans to develop a global definition of “sustainable beef”, with outspoken critic Senator Ron Boswell warning producers last week to “take action now to maintain producer control over the production and marketing of your product”.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has also backed calls for a Senate inquiry into the controversial GRSB process, saying earlier this month he supported Queensland LNP Senators Boswell and Barry O’Sullivan in objecting to the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) involvement in developing the sustainable beef guidelines.
"There really is no need for Australia's involvement at this Global Roundtable," Senator O'Sullivan said. "Why does the Australian beef industry need to start all over again and waste money participating in the global roundtable when we already have reliable and world-class, sustainable credentials?
"This square table process aims to save a lot of time and money by collating the already trustworthy work our sector is doing in the push towards sustainability.”
Kickstarting the square table process less than a month ago, Senator O'Sullivan said a "commonsense" approach was needed to share the sustainable credentials of the Australian beef supply chain with its biggest customers.
Discussion in the three-hour forum last week centred on opportunities for the industry to be proactive in engaging its customers on sustainability issues. There was unanimous acknowledgement that Australian beef customers have become increasingly interested with the processes employed across the agriculture supply chain and the sector had a responsibility to respond.
All participants agreed that a national, industry-driven initiative would be the most effective method to ensure the sector was able to direct what information is needed to be collated, how it would be presented to customers and how to ensure it remained relevant to the future strategic direction of the red meat industry.
Under the new sustainability strategy agreed on at the forum, the Red Meat Advisory Council (RMAC) will take responsibility for governing the process, and the specifics will be steered by a taskforce of industry representatives.
Development of a sustainability framework is planned to be incorporated into the strategic themes of the fourth Meat Industry Strategic Plan (MISP4), due to commence next year.
The work to develop the sustainability framework is expected to be funded with existing levy collections from each of the RMAC peak industry body members.
The marketing and research capacities of MLA, as the industry services company, will play a prominent role in the development of the framework.
RMAC chairman Ross Keane said the creation of the taskforce placed the control and responsibility of sharing Australian beef’s sustainability credentials squarely in the hands of industry.
“As an industry, we need to keep pace – if not stay at the fore of – consumer requirements and community expectations,” Mr Keane said.
“We know customers are taking an interest in our processes and we should respond positively.”
Mr Keane said this industry-led initiative came at an important economic juncture for the beef sector.
“As the resources boom declines, the agriculture sector is strongly on the radar of government,” Mr Keane said.
“We believe the outcomes of this process will be important for the Australian industry in continuing our growth in new and existing markets by demonstrating to our customers that we provide a high quality and sustainable product.
“This square table meeting has shown that our industry bodies are in furious agreement that we must meet and exceed the expectations of our customers,” he said.
“The framework we have committed to developing makes good business sense and with our levy system, it should not create any additional cost for producers.”
Speaking to Fairfax Agricultural Media in April, US Cattleman's Association president Jon Wooster warned any definition of “sustainable beef” would leave a critical question unanswered about what constitutes “unsustainable beef”, generating potentially negative commercial implications.
Mr Wooster said the USCA would withhold its final judgement on the controversial beef certification standards until the GRSB process had concluded.
“I think the whole industry needs to figure out where this sustainable beef issue is going, how it’s going to wind up and how it’s going to affect us all,” he said.
Friday’s ‘square table’ forum included leaders from: Cattle Council of Australia (CCA); Red Meat Advisory Council (RMAC); Australian Lot Feeders Association (ALFA); Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC); National Farmers’ Federation (NFF); AgForce; NSW Farmers; Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association (NTCA); Animal Medicines Australia (AMA); Hughes Pastoral; Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and the federal government.
