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The meat industry is “watching with great interest” to see if warnings of a meat shortage in the United States have a positive effect on our meat export industry.
In the United States, meat plants closed due to Covid-19 have raised fears that consumers may see meat shortages in a matter of days.
Tyson Foods Inc, one of the largest food companies in the world, published a full announcement on The New York Times and other documents last week warned that millions of pounds of pork, beef and chicken would disappear from the supply chain.
Here in New Zealand, meat plants could operate as essential businesses. And despite initial difficulties in distributing its exports to China during its closure, the meat is coming.
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The latest results from the Meat Industry Association are proof. In March, meat exports increased 3 percent in volume and 14 percent in value last March.
Sheep meat exports also increased 4% in volume and 13% in value compared to the previous year.
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Sirma Karapeeva says the meat industry worked overtime to fend off the worst effects of the pandemic.
And overall, New Zealand’s total red meat exports gained $ 1.1 billion, an increase of 12 percent from March last year.
So good was demand, in fact, that March was the first month that total red meat exports exceeded the $ 1 billion mark.
Sirma Karapeeva, executive director of the Meat Industry Association, said it was a testament to the industry’s ability to pivot between markets, its good global networks and the hard work of meat processors in very difficult conditions.
The meat operators had worked the holidays and taken additional shifts to speed up the pace as the companies tried to “keep that fine balance between keeping the processing side running and keeping their workers safe.”
” We saw some falls, for example in sheep meat processing capacity, it was reduced by 50 percent and for beef, it was reduced by 30 to 40 percent. That had a lot of flow implications. ”
The United States competes with China as New Zealand’s largest beef market, using our thinnest, grass-fed beef with more fatty grain-fed beef for burgers, which Americans can still go out and buy.
Much less of our sheep meat is needed, and Karapeeva said the restaurants were largely closed, which had effectively halted demand for New Zealand lamb, particularly lamb racks.
However, exporters were being “nimble” and redirecting sheep meat destined for US restaurants to supermarket and retail markets. Malaysian demand also helped offset the drop.
If the meat shortage appeared in the EE. Karapeeva said it could benefit New Zealand, although the US USA They also obtained beef from nearby countries.
SIMON DAY / THINGS
Export meat coolers at a French-brand supermarket in Shanghai. New Zealand meat exports to China are recovering well.
“It will be interesting to see what April shows us … This is probably where we will begin to see some of the repercussions of disruptions in the US market.”
In China, New Zealand’s largest sheep meat market, meat exports declined 9 percent from a year earlier, but recovered well from China’s decline to closure.
Both beef and sheep meat exports to China fell sharply in February, but volumes almost doubled in March.
“So for me this indicates that China is on the mend,” said Karapeeva.
Globally, the signs were good for New Zealand meat, with no general decline in demand or falling prices on other staples.
However, the industry remains highly vulnerable to how well it keeps Covid-19 out of its workforce.
Although President Trump ordered that U.S. meat factories remain open, the AP reported that approximately 6,500 unionized meat workers are sick or exposed to the virus while working alongside someone who tested positive.
Twenty members of the food processing and meat packing plants had died.
Here, new distancing protocols have slowed processing, but the workforce has largely been left untouched.
A worker at the Alliance’s Timaru plant tested positive last month, and 14 workers took a test and were off work while awaiting results.
Karapeeva said the industry had moved “very quickly” to implement new measures of social distancing, but this had reduced production, with repercussions for farmers affected by the drought.
” Our companies have really focused on complying with those protocols but, at the same time, on how to safely increase the ability to manage some of those critical points for the agricultural community, of course, with drought and lack of food and the like. , it is necessary to continue processing and continue taking inventory. ”
She said the crisis served to highlight two important things about the meat industry.
” The red meat sector is demonstrating how important it is to the New Zealand economy and as the largest manufacturing industry, we are generating export earnings and critical jobs, particularly in the regions.
” The other thing that has stood out to me is the resilience of the sector, and despite the idea that we might be too dependent on one or two markets, in fact some exporters have very diverse market strategies and are capable of pivoting and Please reuse the product very quickly to keep it running. ”
Yearly, meat volumes increased four percent to 465,208 tonnes, with China taking more than half with 208,881 tonnes and Japan with 8 percent or 20,458 tonnes.
Meat exports in value terms were also booming, making $ 3.8 billion, up 18 percent from last year through March.
However, Karapeeva said that nothing could be taken for granted.
“There is strong global demand for protein, however we are also aware of the considerable global volatility and uncertainty in the market.”
