MSA disappearing from supermarket shelves

Knowing that Woolworths differentiate such product as either MSA graded or ungraded Market-Value, I was unsure what quality level was represented and decided to buy some chicken thighs instead.

Thinking back on the matter, I thought it was worth a call to their meat division to see whether there was anything in train to move away from what has been a very stable marketing practice over a lengthy period of time.

Not unexpectedly it proved fruitless trying to contact a senior spokesperson so I settled instead for an explanation from local staff in one regional and two Brisbane stores.

One confirmed that the MSA stickers were not being placed on the packs, did not know why and was not sure about quality.

Another also confirmed no stickers but was adamant the product was still MSA quality.

The third claimed the store had been advised that the drought has impacted Woolworths’ supply chain to such an extent that sufficient quantity of MSA quality product is no longer assured and that MSA stickers are not to be placed on the relevant beef packs.

While not exactly a rigorous survey, the responses did appear to confirm the issue is not just an isolated occurrence and that there appears to be a reason for it.

I would hasten to add that the issue does not appear to be all-encompassing as there were certain packages of beef product on the display shelves that did claim to be MSA graded.

Mostly these appeared to be branded product in vacuum packs but noticeably there was also a lot of branded product that was not identified as MSA graded.

But for the traditional fresh-beef product on a styrene tray, we now seem to be back where we were before Woolworths embraced MSA in October 2011; simply commodity beef of unknown quality at a price.

That would hardly seem a tenable proposition given Woolworths’ apparent ongoing commitment to MSA so presumably if the drought-affected supply story is correct, it may be that Woolworths intends to restore the status quo as soon as possible.

On that score I spoke to a number of feedlot operators to get their views on where the feedlot industry is at present and where it is headed.

The general impression was that the industry is not in a happy place at present.

Many of the drought placements would not have anticipated the skyrocketing price of grain and the almost unprocurable situation with roughage.

One source said that a lot of cows were included in drought placements as well as very poor, light cattle and he thought there may be some substance to the suggestion that supply of the right article is coming under pressure.

As to getting back on track any time soon, there was not a lot to suggest that would be quick and easy.

The recent rain will not impact grain prices for some time, if at all, and the price of store cattle is already moving upward.

Also the yards are full of very young, lightweight cattle and these will be next year’s proposition for feedlot entry.

In essence, once the current drought placements clear the system there may be a noticeable downturn in feedlot inventory until the basics realign for profitable operation.

Weather, of course, will play its part so how it all actually pans out remains to be seen.

One thing it might do if the supply issue runs on is give Woolworths the opportunity to evaluate how important its own cattle-supply-chain arrangements are to its overall beef business.

Woolworths has always supplemented its own supply with boxed beef from a variety of sources.

More and more of this is appearing on the shelves in small-size, vacuum or modified-atmosphere packs.

It seems the challenge is to meet wider consumer expectations in product range and quality and in doing so the outcome may be that newer and varied products crowd out the product from their own supply-distribution-presentation model.

If simple observation is any guide it would seem the former is already gaining ground in that particular race.

WELCOME rain at the beginning of the month was added to with good falls last week bringing totals of 80-140mm generally and even more in places.

The centre of the action seems to be the Wide Bay/Burnett region and generally north of the Bunya Mountains with reports of creeks running and dams filling.

Not surprisingly there has been a big impact on the flow of cattle in the south-east, with Toowoomba on Monday yarding just 177 head.

One major processor I spoke to said that with the prospect of more weather ahead and the country not drying out he expected the impact to continue for a couple of weeks.

In his words a bit of short-term pain but good in the longer term as a lot of people were getting down into the second and third pick of their cattle which were not really good enough and now they have the opportunity to put some condition back on them.

At the beginning of the week grid prices were largely unchanged from the 520c/kg established last week for indicator 4-tooth ox and 450c for heavy cow.

But just where it goes from here remains to be seen.

At Wagga on Monday it was reported that northern processors drove price increases in the cow market of 20-30c/kg live weight.

However that may not necessarily be of great significance as the week before heavyweight Score 3 cows had fallen to a 190c average and Score 4s to a low 209.

Despite the seemingly steep price rises, northern buyers were probably able to operate largely within their existing limits.