Two prominent beef industry stakeholders were honoured last night for their contributions to advances in biosecurity, during a conference dinner held as part of ABARES’ Outlook 2012 program in Canberra.

Queensland’s Nolan Meats received an Australian Biosecurity Award, recognising individuals and organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to maintaining Australia’s biosecurity integrity.

Other biosecurity award recipients came from the mining and shipping sectors.
The citation recognised Nolan Meats for its foresight, tenacity and skill and its contribution to the success of Australian exports.

Accepting the award from the Ag minister Joe Ludwig, Nolan Meats managing director Terry Nolan said the company valued its co-operative relationship with AQIS and was proud to continue to forge new boundaries for all exporters to benefit.

Based in Gympie, Nolan Meats is an Australian family-owned business which pioneered the application of food safety reforms under the Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS).

The AEMIS process and its application by Nolans was explored in detail in an earlier Beef Central story, “AEMIS success drives Nolan exporter award”.

Under AEMIS, Nolan Meats initiated an internationally-recognised and structured management system to add discipline to the meat inspection decision-making process.

The work done at the plant has brought about a once-in-a-generation change to how meat inspection is conducted in Australia through the new AEMIS system.  AEMIS has now received formal recognition from US regulators, and this has been followed by the acknowledgement in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the EU.

“One of our goals at Nolan Meats has always been to achieve access to all international markets, with company people fulfilling the meat inspection role as AQIS Authorised Officers,” Mr Nolan said. “This simultaneously provides a career path for company personnel, allows flexibility with the role the inspectors can perform and most importantly we believe enhances product safety.  It is about ‘building quality in’ at all points of the supply chain to reduce costs,” he said.

“With better control of the process, the result is better food safety outcomes. It’s basically our belief is that AEMIS enhances product safety.”

Nolan Meats is the only meat processor in the world exporting to the major export customer countries of the US, Japan and South Korea under the system, through a pilot development process which started back in 1995.

A state-of- the art processing plant together with a solid family-business culture has allowed Nolan Meats to maintain key markets and develop growing markets. The company has been able to achieve this growth through carefully-executed strategy plans, market-specific marketing plans and a close working relationship with customers.

In a second biosecurity award last night, the late Peter Kenny was posthumously recognised with a lifetime individual biosecurity achievement award for his outstanding work in the field of biosecurity management in Australian agriculture.

A former AgForce Queensland president, Mr Kenny also served lengthy terms on NFF and the Federal Government’s Biosecurity Advisory Council, as well as chairing the Queensland State Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Council. In these roles he tacked some of the nation’s ongoing biosecurity threats including fire ants, wild dog management, Hendra virus and Asian honey bees.

He was also a director of the Australian Landcare Council, and a member of the committee advising the Queensland Premier on Climate Change.

Mr Kenny died last year after a battle with cancer.