Australian Agriculture minister Tony Burke and Trade Minister Simon Crean have taken great pride in announcing the following Free Trade initiatives this week.
- Thrown open the doors to a flood of cheap imports from the 10 ASEAN nations. this will see hordes of low cost, low regulated produce and fruit replace Australian produce on Supermarket shelves.
- Thrown open the doors to Chicken imports from anywhere in the worlds.
- Thrown open the doors to low cost and low regulation banana imports from the Philippines.
We saw the Coalition do the same with our pork producers some years ago. Today most pork on supermarket shelves is from heavily subsidized producers in the USA and Denmark. The result is that 40% of our pork producers have left the industry in the last 18 months.
How long will it be before we open our doors to low cost beef from South America?
Can’t happen I hear you say. Why not I ask? After all our major beef processor is the Brazilian owned JBS-Swifts. They are also the largest Beef processor in South America.
Each of our agriculture industries is being picked off one by one by the Free Traders. Soon there will only be the beef and lamb industries left untouched.
Ask yourself – how long?
After all that’s what free trade is all about.
Have your say!
March 10, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Hi David
Great to hear from you; good to hear that our market share is pretty strong in Indonesia; just wondering if you would like to make a comment on how you see the prices for live export cattle will be this year into Indonesia; will the current financial woes effect the market price wise, or will it basically be business as usual?
What do you think?
I look forward to catching up at some stage….
Rod
March 9, 2009 at 8:45 pm
G’day David,
Great comment mate. Thank you for your factual update of the state of play of the beef market there in Indonesia.
What are you hearing, if anything threre about the reaction to the announcement of the Australia – ASEAN Free Trade agreement?
Very interested in your comments about the South Americans – Did you see that we have just signed a FTA with Chile?
March 9, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Gi’day Rod, Am currently in Indonesia – just completed an Ag Tour Study Group and would like to comment on the Indonesian side of things.
1. In the Early 90′s some ‘ideas’ were definately viewed from the Tey’s Abts and utilised in the building of an Abattoir near Yogyakarta, mainly the concept of 45 degree pens and gates with S bend loading proceedures. To my knowledge the design was carried out by a WA firm and to this day it is the only plant of it’s kind in Indonesia.
The crucks is that this plant only operated for 2 years and has been closed since 1997.
2. Of all the Live Cattle Imported into Indonesia 80% end up in the countrys ‘Wet- Markets’ with Greater Jakarta being the most formatabile consumer.
Jakartas population is +22Million.
Following that 10% enter the Processed Chain of mostly Meat-balls (Baso)
Some active importers Export this product in small packets of about 50g to 100gms
The other 10% is use in ‘primals’ to various distribution chains delivering to Indonesia regions mostly.
Offals are keenly sought after and demand is great for these with high importance on Ox-Tail (Sapi-Buntut)
Indonesia’s demand will continue to grow as their own cattle herd is so-what-lower than that believed by politicians (Strange that eh!)
I will go on record to state that Indonesia is a far better consumer of beef product than that of our own country, for them to be involved in beef exports would seriously go against facts to hand.
Taking up the issue with South American, those folks have been pushing hard in all regions where the Australian product has been selling into, whether it be frozen,chilled or live.
I belive we are better situated to protect our markets in SE Asia than that of the domestic situation ‘at-home.
If you sell the farms so to speak, then you must pay the price.
There has been a lot of howling about fruit produce for some years now.
The Philippine Banana being one of them.
The consistant refusal on imports of Banana smacks of protectionism at its worst.
How long have we been seeing Californian Navel Oranges in the two supermarket chains?
To deny imports of produce with genuine quarantine issues is one thing, but to be wholely involved with globalisation on one hand and then enforcing protectionism on the other is a little conflicting.
This current global crisis has the chance of killing of free trade as it is known, and in my opinion the polititions would be far better counting what money is left in the tin before rushing around like a white ant in a mound.
March 9, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Ron,
I agree with your comment about Indonesia. And potentially there will be many other countries that could end up being competitors whereby Australians have educatated them and provided them with the know how, which some day could come back and bit us in the arse.
I see it all too often where we supply seed for ACAIR and AUSAID projects, and when you follow up with the project managers for results, you find out that the are teaching them not only to utilise the pasture species, but also teaching them to produce seed from these cultivars (some of them have variety rights), for further use. Who knows in a couple of years, Australian seed producers might be competing against these countries in the international seed market. All because of their Australian education.
March 9, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Sue,
You are right about the 10% holding 43.8% of national income. It was interesting in seeing the security lenghts many of these bigger producers go too to protect their lives. Having different sets of number plates and having employees change them daily so that they can some how feel safe. While I was over there there was protests from pesant farmers wanting more land to grow soyabeans. They had been forcing workers on these larger farms to stop preparing for the up and coming soyabean season. Reports were that only 50% of the crop wopuld get planted which would have huge financial implications further down the track.
One thing that Australia will always have over many of these other countries is Political stability. Political under rest will be the downfall of many of these competiting countries.
March 9, 2009 at 12:18 am
Hello again,
I jusat enjoyed a nice lamb chop. OK, maybe it was a hogget. But I know it wasn’t from a country where the average customs inspector has a very reasonable standard of living, and can afford to say “NO” to the pressures of an exporter that would like to put a dodgy load through. And I know it wasn’t from a country where for example, 40% of the fish coming from the Mekong River tested as contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals we long ago banned, when it is sampled in our supermarkets. And I know it wasn’t from a country where the labour force isn’t a press gang, under a regime which makes it impossible for them to exist without strict compliance with corrupt practices at every stage of production. I know it wasn’t produced in a country where human waste is the standard fertiliser. It also wasn’t from a country that can’t afford to have a functional and independant scientific body overseeing their testing standards.
OK, we don’t have it perfect here, but we do have standards that we maintain and we know we can do it wuite well.
However, it seems we are VERY deficient in memory cells! Doesn’t anyone remember a little thing called, what was it, when the horses got the flu? And where did it come from? And how did it get in? And what did it cost? Was it a billion dollars or something? 1/42 of the new stimulus package!
There are TWO sides to this story. The first is that we KNOW, without a doubt, there is corruption and a very low standard set on a huge proportion of the product that many foreign and especially third world countries would like to import into Australia. The second is that we in Australia are STILL very casual about the threats that we face from overseas, of letting bugs and diseases in through being so casual about our customs and AQIS regulations enforcement.
We are an island in a very big puddle, which saves us from a lot of problems of this type. But that doesn’t mean we are immune. Right now, disease IS entering Australia through the tropical regions, on insects, birds and inter-island travel from PNG to Torres Strait. We have pigs and buffalo up there infected with some pretty nasty stuff now and it needs to be attended to. Meanwhile, we are importing foodstuffs, fruit and vegies and livestock with a “she’ll be right” attitude that will cost us everything if we are not careful!
The bees are a great example. I think we are the ONLY nation on the planet with a clean honey bee population, and if the bee killing bugs get here from NZ or other places where it’s prevalent, there will be nowhere on the planet where the honeybee is safe. And that can spell extinction for half the planet’s population! The single scientist working on this problem suggests it is only a matter of time, unless we pull our fingers out and get real about it.
And importing bananas from South East Asia suggests that we haven’t woken up yet!
If this is a carry-over from the philosophies of the Whitlam era and the treasonous signing of the Lima Declaration in 1975, where it was suggested we, the wealthy countries, start to give the poor (third world) countries favoured status and export our small business to them, it’s a sad day. We don’t need to import anything from anywhere, if only to make them feel better, if our own industries are jeopardised as a result. It is also akin to the crime of treason and perhaps if that accusation was levelled at these short sighted idiots a while ago, perhaps the problem would have been recognised and taken seriously a while ago also! This would not even have been considered!
I have gone into this subjest in great detail on my website at http://www.politicalguts.com/id32.html and http://www.politicalguts.com/id33.html. I urge you to take a look, and act accordingly. Sure it’s only a banana, the little piece in the cartoons where the unsuspecting foot comes down on it and we end up with a Funniest Home Video, except this time, it’s our country that is the laughing stock!
Ray Jamieson
March 8, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Hi Steve
In the face of Pacific Brands and others outsourcing to China its easy to get emotive about the expoitation of labour and the like. And , guess what , I am guilty of the same thing. However , there are many superior aspects of the Paraguay and Uraguay beef industry (not to mention South Africa) that we should sit up and take notice of – from husbanding , best practise in transport and saleyard and abbatoir animal handling to killing and processing.I have had the fortune to see all of this first hand in South Africa – from paddock to plate – and I am informed by many credible people that the same exists in South America.
Lets see the MLA for one take this by the bit ? What can we learn and who should we be engaging with to effect the changes that will see us remain competitive – and put a better product on the plate at a fair price for the consumer where all stakeholders of the chain from paddock to plate are better off financially.
Cheers Sean Rothsey
PS – Keep up the great improvements.Your site is real point of reference.
March 8, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hmm, just a thought, what about Indonesia?
I think that it is far more likely that beef derived from Australian cattle will in the very near future come back here to the retail sector; it’s a strong held belief in this neck of the woods.
There are several state of the art abattoirs in Indonesia built using Australian expertise and funded by MLA, employees trained by MLA in operation right now.
Apparently, the blueprints for the abattoirs were supplied as a gift by Teys of their Biloela plant!!!!!
Apparently beef from these operations is being exported to Korea and Japan and other Asian markets in direct competition with Australian product, and that’s been the case for quite some time.
I would imagine that with Mr Crean’s FTA the doors are now open; and in line with successive Governments here secondary industry is something of the past, what’s left of meat processing is surely on a limited life span.
The comments above on South America are an opinion that I think is a little distorted; my family has friends in Argentina and Brazil who pay tax but do not smoke Cuban cigars!!!!
It’s true they have more reliable weather; they have much more freedom than here, there is no class distinction, and they are very proud of their independence and patriotic to their county, they will till you they fort a war to gain independence; there are poor people there but they are proud and happy.
They may well send beef to Australia because that’s what the government here wants, a level playing field; apparently with a defective level!!!!!
March 6, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Well he sounds like a right prat and no doubt one of the 10% of the population that holds 43.8% of the national income. As a result of cheap labour and no taxes Paraguay is a poor and unequal society where between 30-50% of the population is poor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay In rural areas, 41.20% of the people lack a monthly income to cover basic necessities. Hence the underweight women no doubt. But before you charge off over there.
March 6, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Steve,
Your guess is as good as mine. But that’s what they said. I didn’t believe either. Might of been a big line of cracker cows that that bought for $0.50/kg or something.
over there they were saying their pricing ranges from USD$0.70 – $1.20/kg. So you could soon see what kind of impact it could have on Australian cattle producers if imports were allowed. As one Paraguayan cattleman said to me while he was smoking a Cuban Cigar and drinking a glass of red, “Paraguay is great, the land is cheap, labour is cheap, we don’t pay taxes, we get reasonable seasons, we can still clear land to a certain extent, and most women are under 50kgs.” How can we compete with that? I was nearly thinking if I couldn’t beat, I may as well join them.
March 6, 2009 at 4:33 pm
G’day Ross,
That’s incredible. How does that work?
March 6, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Steve,
You pose an interesting question. When I was in Paraguay last year, they were asking me a similar kind of question, but the question was, How is it possible for a consignment of beef from Australia to be sold into Argentina cheaper than what they could supply it for. At that point in time the exchange rate was around 85cents and they we being paid USD$1.20/kg.