Nathan Guy: Meat Industry Association Chair on the trade barriers costing the red meat industry

The red meat sector remains positive despite significant trade barriers.  

The Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb New Zealand have revealed non-tariff trade barriers are costing the industry an estimated $1.5 billion every year. 

MIA Chair Nathan Guy told Mike Hosking they've lost an estimated billion dollars of stock in the last three years.  

He says it's unfortunate but the demand's still incredibly strong, so they're in good shape. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When the old trev counterbeaate is raging this week at

(00:02):
the Red Meat Sector conference. They've made an extra one
point two billion this year. Red meats so hot right now,
but stock levels are a problem. We are, as they say,
leaving money on the table. So what to do? Nathan,
Guys the Meat Industry Association Independent chairing is with us. Nathan,
morning to you, morning Mite. It is gutting, I suppose,
isn't it to know that we could have made even
more money if we wanted to.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yes, that's right. We're in really good shape. Return to
a fantastic for our farmers. They've had a real problematic
couple of years and they've got to spring in their step.
Our processes are doing pretty well buy and large. There's
obviously geopolitical issues and a few headwinds that play with
tariff and a few other things. But if we did
add more volume, we would return more money through to

(00:46):
processes and farmers. Unfortunately, trees have had a bit of
an impact and that's just the reality of I guess
dealing with the numbers that we have to deal with.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Has anyone managed to square the circle? Because if I'm
a farmer and somebody offers me more only for my
farm to plant some trees than they are to sell
to the family wants to run the cows and the sheep.
What am I supposed to do.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well? That is an issue. I guess you sell to
who you want to. Some farmers have said they didn't
want to sell the trees. They've wanted to sell to
their neighbor. Others have sold to the trees. The government
have got this bill working its way through the Parliament
at the moment that's going to stop and restrict blanket
planting of trees on classes one to six. We support
that bill. The reality is though there's still opportunities for

(01:30):
meat companies to make more value out of product. Also,
there's another stream there that's available to them, and that's
bobby calves and there's one point nine million of those
processed every year. If farmers choose to rear some of
those stock and the beef value chain as the hell
of an advantage for the.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Red meat sector that class one to six thing. Is
that going to solve a problem or has the horse
already bolted?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
It will solve a problem, But we have lost stock
over the last three years. Might be in the vicinity
of I was trying to do some numbers on the
back of an envelope last night. Maybe a million lambs,
maybe two hundred thousand beef, four hundred thousand month, and
that's over three years. If you equate that number to
today's prices, it might be in the vicinity of a

(02:17):
billion dollars lost over three years. So it's unfortunate, but
I guess if we step back and think about the demand,
the demand is incredibly strong, particularly out of the US,
despite the ten percent tariff. UK EU fantastic just went
up to the China market with the PM recently green
shoots appearing there, so we're in very good shape, very

(02:40):
positive outlook. It's fantastic, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Nathan. Nice to catch up with you with a good news,
Nathan Guy. Meat Industry Association Independent Chare Cattle herd sizes
in America lowest levels in seventy four years. This is
what I was reading yesterday. There is no sign that
any of that's changing. Prices through the roof in America,
so they're all angsty. It's the new egg story, but
there is no sign that that's changing anywhere. But the
demand stays the same. They cannot get enough meat for burgers,

(03:05):
and that's where we fit in, so it's good news.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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