Parliamentary Questions

Answered on 20 August 2020

Yes, since coming to Government we have put a firm focus on capturing greater value from our premium agricultural produce in Western Australia. Processing meat locally means more jobs in regional WA, and more money into local economies and communities.

We have seen a steady increase in the value of exported meat from WA over the last 10 years.  For example, the volume of exports of WA sheep meat to Qatar in 2012 was 0.77 million kg with a value of $3.44 million increasing to 8.33 million kg in 2019 at a value of $77.6 million.  Overall the total volume of exports of WA sheep meat has increased from 38.9 million kg in 2012 at a value of $161 million to 83.3 million kg in 2019 with a value of $597 million.

Examples of our support for local meat processing include:

• The Value Add Agribusiness Investment Attraction Fund which provides grants to WA based companies to invest in new projects or expansion opportunities to build competiveness, adopt technology and grow their operations.    Over $2 million has been provided to meat processing businesses in the first two rounds including Ryan’s Meats, Avon Valley Beef, Dardanup Butchering Company, Yarrie Station, Milne Agri Group, MidWest Beef Process,     Western Meat Processors, Kimberley Meat Company and Linley Valley Pork. These projects are expected to attract around $6.8 million in co-investment and create 150 jobs.
• Provided $13 million in loans to the Western Australian Meat Marketing Co-operative (WAMMCO) to upgrade its Katanning processing plant.
• $3.15 million has been committed through the Grants for Asian Market Exports (GAME) program. GAME helps WA agrifood businesses enhance their international competitiveness and capture high value, premium export      markets.
• Investing $2.4 million to boost research capabilities at Katanning with a new feed efficiency shed allowing researchers to identify the genetic traits in sheep that will support producers to select their best breeding stock.

As part of the McGowan Government’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan, I recently announced a new Value Add Investment Grants program as part of a wider $16.7 million Food and Beverage Fund designed to support agriculture, food and beverage businesses to undertake more value add processing in Western Australia. This new program will support projects that are located across Western Australia including the Perth metropolitan area.

The McGowan Government responded quickly to the impacts of COVID-19 on our meat exporters by providing $640,000 in air freight assistance during March, April and May. This funding enabled Linley Valley Pork, and a number of lamb and beef processors to maintain the export of chilled meat into Singapore and preserve our jobs and markets.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has strong working relationships with our WA Government Offices in international markets and provide support for in market programs and facilitate business to business engagement and inbound events to ensure WA is able to showcase our produce to the world. 

DPIRD has partnered with industry associations such as Meat and Livestock Australia and Federal Government bodies such as Austrade to support agribusinesses in marketing product and building networks through major international events such as Gulfood or the upcoming CIIE (China International Import Export) event. 

Recently, a number of Middle Eastern markets have eased shelf life restrictions for chilled meat products. For example, Kuwait has recently approved shelf life extension from 70 days to 120 days for beef and 90 days for sheep meat; Jordan has approved a temporary shelf life extension on beef from 90 to 120 days and continues to work on a permanent amendment; Qatar is in the final stage of amending beef shelf life to 120 days (with both beef and sheep meat currently granted 90 days); Saudi Arabia has disseminated a draft regulation to take red meat shelf life from a mandatory 70 days to being non-prescribed, meaning commercial entities can determine the expiry; and Egypt is working on a similar set of measures.

It is expected that Australia s red meat industry is anticipated to receive in excess of $100 million in additional returns as a result of shelf life restrictions being eased and these amendments have the potential to significantly increase the chilled meat offering at retail to consumers in the Middle East region from WA.