AUSTRALIA'S chicken meat maestro Andreas Dubs is about to hand in his white coat after overseeing a record growth spurt in the industry.
Dr Dubs, who served 10 years as executive director of the Australian Chicken Meat Federation, recently announced his retirement.
"It's been an excellent 10 years, but there's always a time to move on," Dr Dubs said of his resignation.
During his tenure the industry notched up some impressive wins.
Local production grew 4 per cent year-on-year for the past decade and Aussies' chicken meat consumption grew enormously.
Ten years ago, chicken meat overtook all red meat categories in consumption and the protein has continued to move from strength to strength.
In 2005 the average Australian ate 37 kilograms of chicken a year and in 2015 that figure has risen to 47kg.
Dr Dubs instituted a strategic focus to improve the industry's relationship with consumers and made headway on the vexed issue of animal welfare.
Driven by international outbreaks of avian influenza and the rise of the free-range chicken debate, Dr Dubs saw transparent communication on animal welfare and food safety as an imperative and made it his mission to open the industry's doors to the public.
"We really tried to say to the public, 'if you have any concerns come here and you will get the true picture'," Dr Dubs said.
"In the past, a lot of the things we had done were reactive but by repositioning ourselves as a source of reliable information we got to the heart of what consumers really want - to trust the industry."
He will hand the baton to Vivien Kite who has served as the federation's deputy executive director and research and development manager for more than 20 years.
Dr Dubs and Dr Kite's decade-long public education campaign has included the development of an information rich website, regular blogs on social media, the distribution of educational books and DVDs for schools, a presence at the Sydney Royal Show, tours of poultry sheds for journalists, and promotion of the nutritional value of chicken meat through health networks.
"We made sure there was a lot of information available on our website on a wide range of topics, but when it came to animal health and welfare issues, we really went big because we wanted to ensure people weren't unnecessarily concerned about things like cages and hormones (both of which aren't used)," Dr Dubs said.
"When I think about my achievements at the foundation, the greatest would be the sheer amount of information we made available."
But there's more work to be done.
Dr Dubs said the price point of chicken meat had been a key factor in its meteoric rise in popularity but the affordability of the protein was under threat by the growing movement toward free-range production methods.
"Unfortunately, many of the concerns people have about chicken farming focus on stocking density and the claims they make are done with very little reference to facts," he said.
"Again, we need to be transparent by communicating how we farm and why.
"Further, we need to explain it's not feasible to have every chicken raised in a free-range environment at 1500 birds a hectare.
"If that were to happen there wouldn't be enough land to produce it on and consumers couldn't afford the meat."
Dr Dubs will begin his retirement on July 20 but will remain involved with the federation as a non-executive director.
Dr Kite is a long-standing member of the International Poultry Council.
Her role of deputy executive director will be filled by Dr Kylie Hewson, former research and development project manager for the Australian Egg Corporation.
Animal welfare no poultry matter
Dr Dubs, along with his successor Dr Vivien Kite, opened his door to animal welfare groups during his leadership tenure, even inviting the renowned group Voiceless to attend a poultry farm tour.
"It's very hard to find a consensus point with working groups like Voiceless and Animals Australia because their ultimate agenda is to stop animals being used as food, but in my opinion it's very important to bring them to the table," Dr Dubs said.
"At the end of the day it comes down to science, and what the research has found to be good or bad for animals.
"Based on that, we are happy to talk to anybody about animal welfare."
Dr Dubs said communicating scientific research to the public and animal rights groups helped limit the spread of misinformation.
"An illustration of where there is a mismatch between science and consumer expectations is stocking density of chickens," he said.
"Some people advocate for a stocking density of 1500 birds a hectare but I would argue that a significant portion of people do not know how big a hectare is.
"On top of that they don't actually know how a chicken behaves because they've never observed it.
"Science shows factors like temperature control are far more important to a bird's welfare than space."
He said it was important for consumers to understand the poultry industry was guided by scientific principles.
"We do try to develop a production system that is both affordable and humane, and our job is to convince people of that."