Late in 2016 I was given the opportunity to become the Vice President of the Sheepmeat Council of Australia. The Sheepmeat Council of Australia (SCA) is the nation’s peak body representing and promoting the national and international interests of lamb and sheepmeat producers in Australia. SCA has many roles that benefit Sheepmeat producers. One of these is to determine national policy for issues affecting sheep producers and to influence the Federal Govt to achieve better outcomes for producers. The issues discussed by the council relate to enhancing the Australian lamb and Sheepmeat brand, securing and protecting markets, providing tools which enable producers to increase farm gate returns and ensuring the long term profitability of the industry.
I am looking forward to the challenge of raising the Sheepmeat Council's profile while continuing to lay the foundation for a strong and successful sheep industry.
Overseas delegations
As part of this new role, I had the opportunity to participate in recent overseas SCA delegations. Australian sheep and lamb producers should be very proud of the industry that we have developed. We have professional expertise at every step of the value chain and this combined effort delivers an exceptional product to overseas consumers. We have an extremely good reputation for producing a quality product that is grown sustainably with good animal welfare standards. Our Food Safety and Integrity Systems are second to none, and this instills confidence for the consumer that the meat is safe and hygienic. In summary :-
USA
Australia’s most valuable market with 64,562 t worth $666.8M in 2016
The average US citizen on average consumes 400g sheep meat/annum
Huge potential in the US, need to work with US lamb industry to grow consumption
EU
Aust currently has 19,186t quota in to EU while NZ has 228,254t quota and can only supply about 140,000t, while Argentina has 23,00t quota and only supply about 2,000 tonne
Opportunity with Brexit to renegotiate the lamb quota to both UK & EU post Brexit, eventually aiming to negotiate new trade regimes with both the EU and the UK
Middle East
Australia’s largest sheep meat market, 111,016t in 2016 worth $636.6M
Live export in 2016 was 1.86m head valued at over $200M
SCA / MLA delegation in
the Middle East
Meeting new friends at the
sheep market in Dubai
MLA BBQ in Brussels - 750 guests