Beef Central published an article yesterday afternoon suggesting a number of Australian beef processors had been suspended from the China market. The information was incorrect.
The five plants listed in the original article continue to have access to China, and are not under any suspension by Chinese authorities.
While the original article was taken down within an hour of publication, it was widely read both here and overseas before being amended.
We are aware that meat exporters were last night being contacted by overseas trade partners, concerned about the message and the implications in the original article. Beef Central apologises unreservedly for any difficulties created within the trade.
The root cause of the mistake appears to be inaccurate translation/interpretation of a Chinese language regulatory report. Unusual time constraints yesterday did not allow us to carry out our normal fact-checking process before publication, after we were provided information about the issue from credible industry sources.
Beef Central takes great pride in its track record for accurate, reliable and news-breaking reporting on beef industry affairs over the past nine years. But on this occasion, we let our readers, and ourselves down. For that, we are sorry, and will learn from our mistake.
We’re anticipating a statement from the Australian Meat Industry Council, which will be added to this item later today.
In a time of the ‘fake news’, you are mere babes in the woods – at least you know how to apologise with dignity. Well done!!
I endorse the comments below regarding your approach to apologising. Well done.
If there’s any one thing in life that is always difficult to carry out, it’s apologising.
Having just read the statement in relation to the inaccurate meat processing story yesterday, just wanted to say “well done”. None of us are perfect, regardless of how hard we try. You’ve owned the error, which takes courage and I commend that.
Yes …….. apologies accepted .
Had you searched ownership , all those abattoirs suspended previous have no Chinese partners .
The rush to be first with news can do some damage!
True enough – but few media organisations are as quick to admit error as this – for that, well done 👍