Skilled labour the future of red meat processing as sector looks to looming opportunities

To make good on the deal processors know they have the machinery required to ramp-up capability. They just need the people. What was always regarded as a dirty job has lately proven hard to fill. Shifts stood down during COVID are struggling to get back up again, with the JBS facility at Dinmore in Queensland being an example, where hundreds of employees were let go and few are now willing to return.

The Australlian Red Meat Processor Corporation (AMPC) is now working with facilities like the Casino Food Coop to promote the sector as a career for life, with multiple pathways to advancement with a campaign called "More to meat than meet the eye".

At an industry breakfast on Thursday, as part of the Primex Field Days, diners were reminded that red meat processing supports 138,000 people in 300 communities and is one of the largest employers in rural Australia.

Casino Food Coop employs 1000 staff and offers a career path to keen workers that might include a master's degree in microbiology, as in the case of Jess Tummage, who graduated from Casino High School and worked her way up from a certificate three course through university as part of her work in the lab.

"My gap year became a career," she said. "I got to work with some of the best meat scientists in the CSIRO and at the University of New England. These people are now my mentors - the greats we look up to when we want to bring skills into the Coop."

Quality Assurance assessor Kalani Moss grew up near Woodburn, in the mid Richmond Valley and had planned on pursuing a political science career until she was side-tracked with a job at the meat works. A certificate 4 course in Ausmeat qualifications, gained as part of her job, led her on a path of advancement that now includes a bachelor of applied science with food science and nutrition.

"The company paid me to study," she said. "It's provided a big career path."

Tim Peterson, raised in Casino, started at the meatworks in 2013 and nine years later, after gaining a certificate 2 in meat processing, he has moved on from the killing floor to undertake his first year as apprentice fitter and turner.

"To see this side of the business is really good," he said. "I never used to understand why we had breakdowns on the floor, now I'm involved with that."

Casino Food Coop CEO Simon Stahl said: "The message we are sending out is that you can leave school and get a certificate. One of our trade butchers now owns his business. After school we have 32 kids who get to learn about the job and can see that there is a career in the red meat sector."

AMPC CEO Chris Taylor is another local product, having grown up on the mid-Richmond and graduating with distinction from Evans River High School. After starting down the path of a career in coal, with Xstrata, Mr Taylor finds he identifies more with the livestock processing sector.

"This is a sophisticated industry," he said.

"Australian red meat processing is advanced manufacturing, creating a world-class product, and it's done locally, in regional communities just like Casino."

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