News

Strategic Plan provides ‘roadmap’ for red meat industry’s next five years

Jon Condon, 09/09/2015

THE red meat and livestock industry has the opportunity to capture an additional $13 billion in net value by 2030, as it seeks to realise the potential set out in the fourth Meat Industry Strategic Plan released in Canberra this morning.

RMAC chairman Ross Keane and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce at this morning's MISP 2020 launch in Canberra.

RMAC chairman Ross Keane and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce at this morning’s MISP 2020 launch in Canberra.

Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce officially launched the MISP 2020 document, which sets out a framework for $1 billion of collective industry investment over the next five years.

Minister Joyce said MISP 2020 would put the red meat and livestock industry in a strong position to take advantage of extremely favourable international market conditions for beef and sheepmeat.

“These favourable conditions create a springboard for the red meat and livestock industry to advance and build an even stronger future – but it is essential the industry takes the lead in understanding its dynamics and setting its own direction,” he said.

“This plan is a great example of an industry showing that commitment.”

The Red Meat Advisory Council has had responsibility for coordinating the development of MISP 2020. RMAC is the peak industry body for Australia’s red meat and livestock industry.  Its membership includes the councils representing the production, processing and live export sectors of Australia’s beef, sheepmeat and goatmeat supply chains.

As one of the largest contributors to Australia’s economy, the strategic direction of the red meat and livestock industry is of critical importance both to the industry itself and to Australia’s overall prosperity.

RMAC chairman Ross Keane said the development and focus of the plan was a huge leap for the industry.

“The red meat and livestock industry is a big industry with big opportunities.  We are Australia’s largest food manufacturer, we turnover in excess of $20 billion annually, we employ 200,000 people across the industry and we are caretakers of almost half Australia’s landmass.  We are proactive and resilient and we have developed a strong plan to frame our future strategic direction,” he said.

MISP 2020 was unprecedented in both the level and combination of consultation and economic modelling and analysis that had gone into its development.

“If we are successful in addressing the opportunities outlined in the plan, we could add almost $7 billion in value to our industry’s bottom line by 2030. But equally, if we don’t effectively address the risks, we stand to lose just over $6 billion in value over the same period,” Mr Keane said.

“The plan is owned by industry and focussed on areas where collective industry investment – levies from producers, processors and exporters of red meat and livestock – will have most benefit,” he said.

The consultative process from which the Plan was distilled started a year ago, and involved more than 500 industry stakeholders at 20 workshops held across Australia. All parts of the industry were consulted in the plan’s development including levy payers, industry representatives, state, territory and federal governments, CSIRO, the University sector, agribusiness and community interest groups.

Mr Keane said MISP 2020 was built around four core pillars, collectively aimed at underpinning sustainability for the industry.

These are:

  • Consumer and Community Support (for the industry’s products and practices)
  • Market Growth and Diversification (for Australian red meat and livestock)
  • Supply Chain Efficiency and Integrity (throughout out industry)
  • Productivity and Profitability (in red meat and livestock enterprises)

These are complemented by a foundation pillar: Leadership and Collaborative Culture.

For each pillar the plan quantifies the ‘upside opportunity’ for industry in successfully investing in the area and the ‘downside risk’ if the industry were to disinvest or fail to address challenges in an area.  This assessment has been derived through sophisticated economic modelling that has been designed to take into account the inter-relationships between industry sectors.

“Our industry’s collective resources are limited, so we have to be smart about where we invest – and to be smart you need good information to make your decisions.  This plan gives the peak industry councils and the industry’s service companies real data, and priorities directly informed from industry, on which to build investment plans,” Mr Keane said.

“MISP2020 gives all sectors of the industry a common framework to work within and will mean we can monitor and report on our progress in a consistent way.  This will give more transparency to levy payers and to Government and will provide the opportunity to drive more efficiencies in the way we operate as an industry.”

The modelling in MISP 2020 can be applied to a particular ‘component’ supply chain.  For example the Sheepmeat Industry Strategic Plan (SISP, also launched by Minister Joyce this morning) and the Beef Industry Strategic Plan (BISP, under development, for a launch expected in November – keep an eye out for a series of discussion papers seeking grassroots producer input in coming weeks) are able to use the economic data and plan framework developed in the MISP 2020 process.

The first MISP was delivered in 1996 and set the strategy that delivered industry systems including Meat Standards Australia, which have since become ‘game-changers’ for the beef and sheepmeat industries.

“This latest MISP 2020 plan is equally ambitious,” Mr Keane said. “If industry works together, we can capture the global opportunities and drive real profitability for all sectors of the chain,” he said.

 

Great time to be a red meat producer

In launching the report, Minister Joyce said 2015 was a great time to be an Australian red meat producer. “Global demand is booming, prices are high and the dollar is low,” he said.

“These favourable conditions create a springboard for the red meat industry to advance and build an even stronger future—but it is essential the industry takes the lead in understanding its dynamics and setting its own direction.”

“This plan is a great example of an industry showing that commitment—and bringing together businesses and producers from across the supply chain in these sectors is a significant achievement,” Minister Joyce said.

“This is a government that sees and truly appreciates these efforts. We’re equally committed to a prosperous red meat sector. It’s a sector that supports rural and regional communities across the country,” he said.

“A strong industry is one that is able to harness its resources and work together cooperatively—and I commend the industry for doing just that. This plan puts the red meat sector in the best possible position to take advantage of available opportunities and continue to prosper.”

 

  • Coming up: Beef Central scrutinises some of the cost:benefit analyses included in the MISP document.
  • To access the full Meat Industry Strategic Plan 2020, click here.

 

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Comments

  1. Angus Munro, 10/09/2015

    All very well said.
    No mention of how the pursuit of mining is going to effect so many of our rural industries and towns.
    Water is essential,don’t forget it!

  2. Philip Downie, 10/09/2015

    I await with interest you analysis because there are some pretty big numbers thrown around here and it is hard to see where they will come from.

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