The Port of Townsville

BOXED beef exports have started to ramp up out of the Port of Townsville in the past six months, with proponents hoping that more access to shipping in the area can provide a backbone for further development of the north.

Beef exports have centralised over the past three decades, with the overwhelming majority of red meat from across the country departing the Port of Brisbane. For northern processors, the centralisation means that a lot of beef is transported thousands of kilometres to Brisbane before sailing back past the area it came from.

Congestion issues at big ports, like Brisbane, have largely brought regional ports like Townsville back into use.

About 10-15 containers of beef have been departing Townsville weekly. JBS has been the main user, with the recently built Signature Onfarm abattoir at Clermont sending its first container last week.

Containers out of Townsville have mostly been heading to Singapore, before going to other markets in Asia like Japan, Korea, China and South-East Asia. A mixture of chilled and frozen cuts, alongside commodity trimmings, have been departing the northern port.

JBS northern division chief operation officer Brendan Tatt.

JBS northern division chief operating officer Brendan Tatt said the company had increased its exports from Townsville significantly in the past year – going from about 280t last year to about 1700-1800t this year.

He said difficulties shipping out of other ports played a significant role in the company looking to diversify its export points.

“Shipping has been tough, the schedule reliability is not what it was pre-covid,” Mr Tatt said.

“There are lots of changes on shipping windows, lots of cancellations, late notice on vessels, sometimes they omit Brisbane to get back on track and that puts you back a week.

“Between that and the ever-growing cost of domestic freight, whether it is trucks or rail, it is more efficient to send meat from Townsville.”

Mr Tatt said more efficient operations at the Port of Townsville made processing in the area more viable.

“We are committed to the plant up there and we are trying to extend the season. It used to be very seasonal, only operating six-to-seven months of the year, and we are now trying to make it work for 11,” he said.

“Port logistics are a major part of making beef exports and processing in the north more viable.

“Being the most northern plant on the Eastern Seaboard, wherever we can support containerised freight out of the north we will.”

Critical mass needed to make Townsville shipping viable

Blair and Josie Angus’ Signature Onfarm abattoir, which finished construction in 2021, sent its first container out of Townsville last week.

Josie Angus

Ms Angus said until last week’s container was transported out of Townsville, all of Signature Onfarm’s exports left the Port of Brisbane. She said making transport more efficient was a priority for the business.

“The reality is that freight is a killer and the more we can get beef moving regionally and ultimately leaving the country from regional ports will be a good thing,” she said.

Working with the processors, a cold storage company called Harbourside Services is the main driver behind the uptick in activity at Townsville. Ms Angus said increasing activity at the Port of Townsville was key to Northern development.

“Critical mass is what we are all after and Harbourside is making it easier with the level of service they are providing,” she said.

“Surely as a country we have to develop the north at some point. Where we can look to work together as like-minded Northern Australian businesses, we’ll certainly take the opportunity.

“Backing existing family businesses in northern Australia and creating a level of mosaic development in my opinion creates a stronger base for the North to move forward.”

More volume needed to make Townsville work

Harbourside general manager Robert Hall said congestion at the Port of Brisbane had created more opportunity for regional ports.

“Townsville Port has been heavily underutilised for a long time for produce including beef. That is mainly due to the cost of transport and shipping,” Mr Hall said.

“If a grower or processor can save money by sending their product somewhere else, than they are going to go somewhere else every time.”

Trucks loading out of Harbourside cold stores. Photo: Supplied

Mr Hall said getting consistent and large volumes of product was key to the viability of the port.

“It really took working with JBS to get it happening with any volume and we are keeping up with their production now,” he said.

“The idea is to get enough happening out of the Port of Townsville to incentivise other growers to start using it as well.”

One of the main issues with shipping beef out of the Port of Townsville is a need to re-position refrigerated containers (reefers), which are more available at big ports like Brisbane. Mr Hall said shipping company ANL had been supportive of making reefers available.

“There is always a shortage of reefers, companies don’t usually just want to sit a couple in Townsville just in case somebody wants them,” he said.

“But now we have a stock of reefers coming through the port it opens up opportunities for others.”

Mr Hall said one of the best ways of making sure there is a good supply of reefers is to bring cold and frozen imports into Townsville.

“There could be a whole lot more imports at the Port of Townsville and we are going to keep pushing for that,” he said.

“A lot of product that Australia uses is imported, like chips and other frozen product, lots of oil as well.”

Taking a long-term view

Mr Hall said he had been encouraging importers and exporters to take a long-term view of the port, which has the potential to be the backbone of further development in the area.

“The whole purpose of Harbourside as a business is to provide a sustainable solution for food distribution from the north,” he said.

“It is not a high margin revenue stream, it is important for the regions to keep capacity to export goods. If we can remove barriers for people to export out of the north, it is good for our economy, it is good our highways and it saves food miles.”