Market approach scrutinised

01-05-2010 | Not Specified

Just how Australian beef will be marketed this year has come under direct scrutiny from beef producers.

An initiative of Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), which uses beef and sheep levies to market red meat in domestic and international markets, the annual marketing taskforce workshop assesses how the meats will be marketed and determines priorities.

MLA Managing Director David Palmer said representatives of all sectors of the industry gathered to discuss where the budget was to be spent.

"Each year we have a wide cross-section of industry gather to discuss the big issues and opportunities for red meat, and how they want to see marketing levies invested for maximum benefit to producers and the broader industry," he said.

The meeting decided some of the goals and issues for the year ahead should be:

• Capitalise on recent market access gains for beef in Europe and Russia and continue to focus on improved access across all red meat markets

• Increased competition will continue in Australia's largest beef markets - Japan and Korea - with the return of US beef

• The ongoing threat to the perceived nutritional benefits of red meat and competition from other proteins

• The need to counter misinformation in the community about the impact of red-meat production on the environment. The amount of water used to produce a kilogram of beef has been gaining increasing news media exposure in Australia

• Diversifying the market base and spreading risk by increasing investment in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Russia and the Middle East

"While underlying demand for our products is still strong, emerging issues threaten the future prosperity of the industry," Palmer said.

MLA stages similar workshops for each of Australia's domestic, Japan, Korea, Americas, Europe and Southeast Asian markets to oversee and assist direction of the marketing strategies and programmes it carries out on behalf of industry.

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