When Jack Shute spoke of beef’s threat from poultry in 1961, less than 10 per cent of Australia’s table beef was sold through supermarkets.
In 1991, it was 28pc, now, in 2018, it is over 65pc. Consequently, wholesalers faded from the scene, lowering chain costs.
Up until 1991 supermarkets had to cover their red meat shelves during late night and weekend trading.
This had been legislated following butcher association pressure (individual shop owners couldn’t work such long hours) and was giving poultry a huge advantage. We succeeded in having the law overturned.
However, this hasn’t all been good news, as the supermarket duopoly grew in bargaining strength and the personal service offered by butchers vanished behind impersonal, stacked shelves.
Red meat reaches consumers through retailers, institutions and fast food outlets.
Value adding of poultry by big operations outgunned red meat badly in retail, but not in fast food, which was huge.
A 2014 survey gave 43pc to McDonald’s and Hungry Jacks, and 27pc to KFC and Red Rooster. There are 900-odd McDonald’s in Australia, over 40,000 worldwide. Mince is beef’s greatest asset and its biggest sale item.
AMLC’s lean beef promotion suited the northern product, but the consumer who bought lean meat missed the flavour, juiciness and tenderness, and moved to chicken and pork. Millions of dollars of producers’ levies were wasted.
Consumers don’t want to know where their meat comes from. Associating meat with live animals is an encouragement to vegetarianism.
Farm of origin is a sick joke being chorused by academics and con men. This has been illustrated by Aussie Farmers Direct’s recent sad collapse.
A personal meeting with a farmer sounds fine, but when 65pc of meat is sold through impersonal supermarkets, it is meaningless. Your mince purchase could come from over a hundred farms. A steak purchase may come from a specific farm one week, but another wouldn’t hit your supplier for years.
Consumers want consistent quality and price. Brands will go nowhere unless they have a proper grading system behind them and complete continuity of supply. Only a very small number of suppliers (mostly processors) can meet these requirements.
Likewise, the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) was a tag company manipulated tragedy. We, in Australian Beef Association, nearly stopped it, but Premier Peter Beattie went to Japan and was told by Meat and Livestock Australia the Japanese consumer was demanding traceback.
Most of Australian beef in Japan goes into manufacturing. Japanese, like everyone else, buy on price and quality. NLIS increases producer costs and lessens our global competitiveness, as India, US and Brazil (our chief competitors) are smart enough to see its lack of relevance.
- John Carter
