TROPICAL Cyclone Alfred is already impacting the southern Queensland red meat industry, with shipping port and meat processing plant closures already happening in the weather system’s likely strike zone.

Currently located about 350km east of Brisbane, the Category Two cyclone is forecast to cross the southern Queensland coast some time early Friday morning. As advised by the Bureau of Meteorology, intense rain and gale force winds are forecast over coming days, particularly tomorrow and Friday.

The Port of Brisbane, responsible for about two thirds of Australia’s entire beef export capacity, closed to incoming ships on Sunday afternoon and outgoing vessels on Tuesday. Gale-force winds were expected in Moreton Bay from midday today.

The last time the Port was closed was in 2022, when Brisbane River flooding caused the facility to cease operations for 11 days, because of obstructions in shipping channels and localised flooding. The closure caused major logistical headaches for beef exports, with chilled and frozen product backing-up before it could be shifted. The lack of incoming empty containers also created shortages. Some beef consignments were relocated south to Port of Sydney for export.

It’s hoped that this week’s Cyclone will be much less impactful. In the current event, the concern is primarily around damage from high winds, rather than floodwater or river/Moreton Bay obstructions.

Some of the container storages at Port of Brisbane, stacked up to 5-6 units high, are being disassembled over concerns about high winds. Concerns also exist over the port’s enormous elevated gantry cranes (see image).

Temporary processing closures

With the southern Queensland region representing the largest concentration of beef processing capacity in the nation, a number of large export processing plants in the area are already closed, or are about to. That’s mostly about staff welfare and the prospect of livestock delivery challenges, Beef Central was told. Prospects of power disruption was also a factor at some southern Queensland plants in the 2022 weather event, although many sites have auxiliary emergency power on site.

Some of the beef plants impacted this week include:

• JBS Dinmore, southeast of Brisbane, closed after tomorrow’s morning shift for the remainder of the week
• Australian Country Choice at Cannon Hill in the city’s inner southeast, closed tomorrow, with a decision still to be made about Friday
• Dedicated grainfed processor Kilcoy Global Foods, an hour north of the city, closed tomorrow and Friday, at this stage
• Teys Beenleigh, located to the city’s south, running only a day shift (kill and bone) tomorrow, and no work Friday.

Barring more significant cyclone impact over the weekend, most are hopeful of returning to work on Monday next week. Port access will be a factor.

Other associated red meat businesses in the region are also planning closures for the next day or two, at least. KGF’s large Coominya beef pattie manufacturing plant will close tomorrow and Friday.

Brisbane International Airport, which handles consignments of airfreight beef into regions like Singapore and the Middle East, remains open for the time being, but plans to provide an update later this afternoon and again tomorrow.

While beef processors are able to manage short-term sea port closures without too much disruption, prolonged closures would have far greater impact. That’s because on-site cold storage is often somewhat limited at processing plants, with upcoming consignments typically relocated frequently to storage closer to port. Once shipping and vessel loading operations stop, product can quickly back-up in available cold storage facilities close to the port.

And once on-site plant storages are full, production literally has to cease until space becomes available.

At 11am this morning, the Bureau of Meteorology rated Cyclone Alfred a Category 2 system, with  sustained winds near the centre of 95kph and wind gusts to 130kph. It was located 345km east of Brisbane and 315km east of the Gold Coast, moving west at 16kph.

Alfred is forecast to maintain its current intensity as it approaches the southeast Queensland coast on Thursday, expected to cross the coast early Friday morning, most likely somewhere between Maroochydore (north of Brisbane) and Coolangatta (one hour’s drive south).