AUSTRALIAN cattle producers usually view other beef exporting nations as our competitors in the all-important global market.
So travelling to Canada to attend the annual conference of the International Beef Alliance (IBA) in September, where cattle producer organisations come together to progress shared objectives and address common challenges, was a very positive experience.
Members of the IBA comprise representative organisations – effectively other countries’ equivalent of Cattle Council – from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay and the United States. In other words, when we were sitting around the IBA table in Calgary, producers of over 60 per cent of the world’s traded beef were represented.
Collectively, we’re united in recognising that ongoing trade reform, liberalisation and the elimination of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers is vital to the prosperity of the global beef value chain.
Australian beef isn’t just competing with beef from other countries.
We’re facing significant challenges from cheaper meat options such as chicken and pork, and increasingly, from meat alternatives.
IBA’s Young Beef Leaders, including 2017 Cattle Council Rising Champion Kylie Stretton from Charters Towers, presented on alternative proteins and discussed regulatory issues and product perception.
Key conclusions were that alternative proteins need to be regulated and labelled in a truthful manner and that producers need to enhance our natural protein story.
Cattle Council and our industry partners are fully seized of this and know that a crucial part of the equation is ensuring that food labelling rules are keeping pace with developments in food manufacturing.
That’s why news in the past week of a review into food labelling is most welcome.
Cattle producers – indeed all Australian farmers – should welcome this review so that, with the entry of a number of imitation foods into the marketplace, consumers are able to make informed choices when shopping.
In any retail setting, whether it is a butcher shop in Europe and a supermarket in the Australian suburbs, a transparent, level playing field is all we can ask for.
People are free to eat whatever they choose, and we would never want that freedom compromised because we know Australian beef has a compelling story to tell.
That’s why we’ll keep working to ensure that when consumers seek out a healthy, environmentally and ethically sustainable source of protein that supports our farmers, they know that nothing beats Australian beef.
