March 4, 2026 • 5 mins
Our Australian correspondent talks export meat stranded in the Middle East, Ag exports cracking the $100 billion mark, banning the word “milk” for plant juice, and whether Dame Jacinda Ardern is going to be his new next-door neighbour?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's there.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
OSI correspondent, long standing Chris Russell, based out of Sydney.
He's on the road at the moment. We find him
in a place called Bundon Noon. Now, Chris, is that
anywhere near one of my favorite Australian holiday destinations, Bonnie Doune.
My god, the castle's a great movie.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah. No, it's nowhere near And sadly it's nowhere near
Bonnie Dune or any proposed airport. Happily, and it's more
English than the English here. You drive around here. We
lived in England for some years, as you know, and
I could swear I was driving around East Anglia. It's
a beautiful part of the world. So we're just at
the end of this particular caravan trip and we'll be
(00:37):
back in Sydney today. Now.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Talking about Sydney, our former Prime Minister Jacinda Dern is moving.
She could be your next door neighbor, Chris. I see
that she wants to settle somewhere on the northern beaches
of Sydney where all you rich people live.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, that's it. I saw the heave on the paper.
Jacenda chefs to Sydney. Play on words, but yeah, see
has taken a liking to moving over here, and that's
the pretty richy part of Sydney. She's moving to the
Northern Beaches, Palm Beach, where A Home and Away is
filmed Mano vailed the while all of those beautiful areas
(01:13):
up there. That's where she's shifting. So she'll need to
bring probably around four to five million dollars with it,
buy a nice little house there, three bedroom house, and
we look forward to her seeing a light of moving
to God's country.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Meat stranded mid Ocean and the Middle East. This is
an Australian shipment. It's messy over there. It's going to
get MESSI this is just the beginning of stalled trade.
I put it to.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You, Chris, Yes it is, and I think we're going
to see lots of changes from this. There's about fifteen
billion dollars they say, potentially effect on Australian trade and
we've currently got about a billion dollars worth of products
sitting on the water with nowhere to go. A lot
(01:58):
of the meat that has been sent to the Middle East,
and they're huge importers of meat from US. Of course,
is all labeled in Persian and Arabic writing. Can't be
re shifted and sent off to anybody anywhere else because
they wouldn't be able to read any of the labeling.
So I'm quite sure what they're going to do with
that when the time runs out in terms of its
(02:18):
use by date, So could be expensive. Obviously, no one
was expecting this to be this quick and to happen
that quickly, and that's the key to a successful war campaign.
But yes, I think we haven't yet seen the full implications.
I noticed Jamie in the paper the day that diesel
in the Northern Terra Trusius, of course, a very remote
part of Australia, is selling already for four dollars a liter.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, the price scouges have started already.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, exactly. And I guess that was inevitable because there
aren't too much competition up there.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Gross value of agricultural production breaks your twenty thirty target
of one hundred billion early. You like us, you've done
it early. But from one hundred billion or an excess
of one hundred billion, you're talking about agricultural production being
only worth seventy seven billion in the next farming season.
That's a big fall from grace.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah. Well, you know they're saying This is definitely a spike,
and you know we're celebrating. Of course, one hundred billion
is a great target. We've reached it four years early,
which is wonderful, but it's spected to due to the
partly the trade conditions and also the seasonal conditions that
we're forecasting for next year. When they set one hundred
(03:33):
billion dollars, they actually thought that was a pretty bold target.
And you know, twenty eighteen nineteen when they set that
targ the value was about sixty billion, so they thought
we've got a long way to go, but they worked hard.
We've certainly seen a perfect storm of events of climate,
of production, of pricing and so on this year. But certainly,
(03:55):
as far as ABARS is concerned, and the ABARS Outlook
Conference is on at the moment down in Canberra, they're
seeing crop prices expected to decline, mark many global markets
will decline, and they're seeing next year, that is the
five twenty six year be about ninety five billion, and
(04:16):
potentially the following year it could be down to seventy
seven billion, so that's quite a big drop.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Here's one that I fully support. Dairy farmers call for
a ban on the word milk for plant juice. It's
like oat milk, it's not oat milk oat juice. Obviously
following a UK victory in their High court, so you'd
be right behind this one as well.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well. This has been a fan hoavey horse of mine
for a long time. In fact, I have been name
to go into the supermarkets for the text to color
crossing out the word milk on all of their oat
milk products and writing the word juice underneath. A great
risk to my future accommodation. But you know, they had
a big victory in the UK. The High Court has
ruled over there that a company that was talking about
(04:59):
post milk products they were calling their oat juices and
almond juices. That's been ruled as illegal in England, and
now they're calling here in Australia. The deir industry is
calling to do the same thing over here. I see
in Canada it's also been banned. You can only call
things that come out of an animal milk. And they're
(05:20):
looking at the same problem with yogurts and cheeses. So
let's hope that finally a little hard victory that we've
been working on for years over here comes to fruition,
and things will be called juice when their juice, and
milk when their milk.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Jamie, you're bang on, Chris Russell. Thanks for your time.
From All's Catch next week, no worry,
He's there.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
OSI correspondent, long standing Chris Russell, based out of Sydney.
He's on the road at the moment. We find him
in a place called Bundon Noon. Now, Chris, is that
anywhere near one of my favorite Australian holiday destinations, Bonnie Doune.
My god, the castle's a great movie.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah. No, it's nowhere near And sadly it's nowhere near
Bonnie Dune or any proposed airport. Happily, and it's more
English than the English here. You drive around here. We
lived in England for some years, as you know, and
I could swear I was driving around East Anglia. It's
a beautiful part of the world. So we're just at
the end of this particular caravan trip and we'll be
(00:37):
back in Sydney today. Now.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Talking about Sydney, our former Prime Minister Jacinda Dern is moving.
She could be your next door neighbor, Chris. I see
that she wants to settle somewhere on the northern beaches
of Sydney where all you rich people live.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, that's it. I saw the heave on the paper.
Jacenda chefs to Sydney. Play on words, but yeah, see
has taken a liking to moving over here, and that's
the pretty richy part of Sydney. She's moving to the
Northern Beaches, Palm Beach, where A Home and Away is
filmed Mano vailed the while all of those beautiful areas
(01:13):
up there. That's where she's shifting. So she'll need to
bring probably around four to five million dollars with it,
buy a nice little house there, three bedroom house, and
we look forward to her seeing a light of moving
to God's country.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Meat stranded mid Ocean and the Middle East. This is
an Australian shipment. It's messy over there. It's going to
get MESSI this is just the beginning of stalled trade.
I put it to.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You, Chris, Yes it is, and I think we're going
to see lots of changes from this. There's about fifteen
billion dollars they say, potentially effect on Australian trade and
we've currently got about a billion dollars worth of products
sitting on the water with nowhere to go. A lot
(01:58):
of the meat that has been sent to the Middle East,
and they're huge importers of meat from US. Of course,
is all labeled in Persian and Arabic writing. Can't be
re shifted and sent off to anybody anywhere else because
they wouldn't be able to read any of the labeling.
So I'm quite sure what they're going to do with
that when the time runs out in terms of its
(02:18):
use by date, So could be expensive. Obviously, no one
was expecting this to be this quick and to happen
that quickly, and that's the key to a successful war campaign.
But yes, I think we haven't yet seen the full implications.
I noticed Jamie in the paper the day that diesel
in the Northern Terra Trusius, of course, a very remote
part of Australia, is selling already for four dollars a liter.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, the price scouges have started already.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, exactly. And I guess that was inevitable because there
aren't too much competition up there.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Gross value of agricultural production breaks your twenty thirty target
of one hundred billion early. You like us, you've done
it early. But from one hundred billion or an excess
of one hundred billion, you're talking about agricultural production being
only worth seventy seven billion in the next farming season.
That's a big fall from grace.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah. Well, you know they're saying This is definitely a spike,
and you know we're celebrating. Of course, one hundred billion
is a great target. We've reached it four years early,
which is wonderful, but it's spected to due to the
partly the trade conditions and also the seasonal conditions that
we're forecasting for next year. When they set one hundred
(03:33):
billion dollars, they actually thought that was a pretty bold target.
And you know, twenty eighteen nineteen when they set that
targ the value was about sixty billion, so they thought
we've got a long way to go, but they worked hard.
We've certainly seen a perfect storm of events of climate,
of production, of pricing and so on this year. But certainly,
(03:55):
as far as ABARS is concerned, and the ABARS Outlook
Conference is on at the moment down in Canberra, they're
seeing crop prices expected to decline, mark many global markets
will decline, and they're seeing next year, that is the
five twenty six year be about ninety five billion, and
(04:16):
potentially the following year it could be down to seventy
seven billion, so that's quite a big drop.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Here's one that I fully support. Dairy farmers call for
a ban on the word milk for plant juice. It's
like oat milk, it's not oat milk oat juice. Obviously
following a UK victory in their High court, so you'd
be right behind this one as well.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well. This has been a fan hoavey horse of mine
for a long time. In fact, I have been name
to go into the supermarkets for the text to color
crossing out the word milk on all of their oat
milk products and writing the word juice underneath. A great
risk to my future accommodation. But you know, they had
a big victory in the UK. The High Court has
ruled over there that a company that was talking about
(04:59):
post milk products they were calling their oat juices and
almond juices. That's been ruled as illegal in England, and
now they're calling here in Australia. The deir industry is
calling to do the same thing over here. I see
in Canada it's also been banned. You can only call
things that come out of an animal milk. And they're
(05:20):
looking at the same problem with yogurts and cheeses. So
let's hope that finally a little hard victory that we've
been working on for years over here comes to fruition,
and things will be called juice when their juice, and
milk when their milk.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Jamie, you're bang on, Chris Russell. Thanks for your time.
From All's Catch next week, no worry,
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