Droughts and floods threaten Australian meat producers

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The chief executive of the Australian Meat Processor Corporation (AMPC) has warned meat processors in the country of the impeding negative effects that recurrent droughts and floods experienced by farmers in north Queensland could have on the meat processing sector.

He said this in a speech to Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation committee earlier this week.

He highlighted the loss of livestock as the major risk factor from the floods stating that there had been a 2% loss of cattle which amounted to about AU$27million.

This impact from the drought, he said, will affect the meat processors significantly stating the effects of such occurences are often felt in the long term as  farmers will now be robbed of the offspring that would have come from the lost cattle.

He also revealed that there will be a drop in levies, the lowest since 2012, and the corporation will be processing about 7.6million cattle.

He also stated that the corporation was the largest and major employer of labor in the meat industry with facilities that are mostly based in rural and regional towns.