Australian Pork Limited has committed to a big picture approach for the next five years to help reduce industry volatility and tap into Australia's $400-billion health industry.
APL chief executive officer Margo Andrae and APL board chair Andrew Baxter unveiled the pork industry's 2020-2025 draft strategic plan for the first time at the SA Pig Industry Day at Tanunda and revealed an ambitious goal of increasing the pork industry's $5.3 billion economic value by $500 million.
After 16 stakeholder workshops were held across Australia to help form a new strategic plan, Ms Andrae said APL endeavoured to build its value by "opening" the industry up to the public to instil consumer confidence into the future.
"We are leaders in animal care - people need to know they can trust us and the strategic plan is about narrowing down what this looks like and how to spread that message to those outside of the pork industry," she said.
"In the past five to 10 years, there has been a 40 per cent increase in the consumption of pork and its economic value has grown from $3b to $5.3b."
But Ms Andrae said the pork industry's revenue was about $1.6b and this needed to increase through effective marketing, proactive policy and impactful research.
"There is an amazing highway that is running above industry in technology and data and I must admit, Australia is falling behind compared with global progress."
Ms Andrae said APL aimed to narrow down which technology the Australian industry had and how to improve it with global approaches.
She said the reality was, Australia's pork industry was small, with about 2700 commercial producers across the country, but a united approach could stimulate growth.
"Product diversification is key. There are other markets for pork products such as pharmaceuticals and it's crucial to identify how consumers will be eating pork in the future to help increase demand and stimulate growth," she said.
"There are ways for pork producers to access and flourish in Australia's $400b health industry and we need to identity them."
APL board chair Andrew Baxter said the world's view about food was changing and ALP wanted to be known as a progressive pork organisation that offered beneficial tools for producers in tough times.
"The industry is like a roller coaster of highs and lows and having a social license to operate is front of mind for the industry - we need to find actionable tactics to fix this," he said.
Despite its challenges, the pork industry is well-placed to increase its value, according to APL marketing development manager Peter Smith.
"Pork is now the number two protein behind chicken, and beef and lamb have dropped below, so the new message is getting across," he said.
Slaughter rates for 2019 were about 95,000 to 97,000 a week but the "magic" number for supply and demand to be at even standing is 100,000, Mr Smith says.
"We expect slaughter numbers to peak at about 104,000 in 2021," he said.
"Baconer prices have softened by 10 cents a kilogram to a $4.10/kg national average in the past three weeks but that is not an indication of a major crash, more so because of a reduced number of overseas tourists because of coronavirus."
An SA-focused two-phased marketing strategy to help with domestic product differentiation has also been launched by APL to increase pork value.
"Research found we need to increase awareness about Australian smallgoods and help consumers feel happy to pay a higher price than its imported counterparts," Mr Smith said.
"The second phase will focus on a direct approach to advise consumers that they should be buying Australian pork products ," he said.
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