New slate for pork growers

PORK growers are calling for a restructure of their industry to ensure it remains strong in the face of growing imports and domestic pressures.

Those domestic pressures include the higher Australian dollar hitting export competitiveness, and drought-inflated feed costs.

While these pressures are not likely to kill the industry, which is worth $1 billion nationally and $105 million to WA, there are concerns that they will prevent its continued growth.

Australian Pork Limited, the national pork industry body, has released a draft industry restructure plan and is seeking comment from growers, processors and retailers.

The seven-point plan includes things such as increasing fresh pork sales and margins, increasing carcase weight, reducing feed costs and building customer loyalty for 100 per cent Australian small goods.

That plan was put to WA Pork Producers’ Association members at its recent general meeting.

Along with that plan, members also discussed the Australian HomeGrown food labelling program, a joint effort with 52 other agricultural industries, to promote Australian produce.

That HomeGrown label fits in with the industry restructure plan’s goal to build customer loyalty for Australian-made small goods.

WAPPA president Stuart Coole said the association had been pushing for such a labelling and branding program to allow consumers to identify country of origin at point of sale, particularly as imported pork accounted for 41.5 per cent of the processed pork market.

Processed pork accounts for about 60 per cent of the total pork market.

“Building on the emotional bond Australian consumers have with their farmers and their produce, HomeGrown will let consumers know, for the first time, whether the pork they’re buying is genuinely made with 100 per cent Australian produce,” Mr Coole said.

On the feed cost side, the industry restructure plan suggests finding grains better suited to pork producers.

Feed costs made up 63 per cent of pork producers’ total costs in 2001-02 and 68 per cent in 2002-03.

Along with feed costs, there is a push to increase the size of the animals being sent to slaughter.

Australian producers have traditionally kept their animals to a carcase weight of about 100 kilograms and the plan suggests a size of about 120 kilograms.

The fixed costs remained the same whether the animal was 100 kilograms or 120 kilograms, only the feed costs increased.

Therefore, it is possible to get greater profit per animal.

Australian Pork Limited board member, Wongan Hills pork producer, veterinarian and WA Business News 40under40 winner Chris Brennan said the industry needed to become more consumer friendly.

“We need to change our product mix and get away from a pork chop mindset,” Dr Brennan said.

“We need to become more customer driven than product driven.”

In the domestic market pork has boosted its appeal thanks to a recent campaign.

Dr Brennan said pork now ranked above lamb as a meat of choice but was still lagging behind the Australian favourites of beef and chicken.

Pressures on pork producers grew in the early 1990s when the market was opened to Canadian pork.

In 1998 the global pork industry underwent a downturn driven by oversupply. That led to an increase of Canadian products and Danish pork purveyors also entered the market.

Imports to WA from Denmark more than doubled in 2003-04 to 1,618 tonnes.

Canada remained WA’s major overseas supplier with 1,846 tonnes.