Supermarkets To Pay Higher Meat Prices - Boswell

Hah! Not likely! Retail prices are up again but the Nat's have found more excuses for prices not being pased through to producers!
Wouldn't it be nice if the Nat's Senators Boswell, Anderson, McGauran and Vaille actually stood for something in favour of their farming constituency. Instead all they seem to do is kowtow to the Libs and 'bag' Labor.

Labor seems to at least be interested in the fact that grocery prices are increasing. (The CPI was 1.4% this quarter alone i.e. 5.6% on an annual basis! Do your meat prices relfect this?) . It wants to investigate supermarket pricing because farmers aren't getting such increases.

Senator Boswell however, says that, "The only way to bring prices down is to encourage more competition and independent operators in the grocery sector, and for Australian shoppers to change their habits to support them." Fat chance, mate! He says, "... we live in a free country where people are allowed to buy what they choose from whom they choose to buy it, at a price they are prepared to pay."
Sounds good in theory, but with our largest processor (AMH) owned by our largest competitor (Brazil) and the two largest retailers owning 70% of the market, it might be time to listen to someone who might be interested in helping us and not just propping-up the Big end of Town.
What do you think?
Click on Comment below to leave your thoughts.

Are Gunns and Great Southern Against Farmers Gaining Carbon Credits?

Planting a tree gains a car buyer carbon offsets in the USA.
Does it follow that car companies might buy-up plantations as investments to counter-act their polluting ways? (Not that it actually decreases pollution, of course!)
If John Howard can envisage this scenario, why can't he envisage Australia's farmers getting in on the Carbon-trading act? Farmers are responsible for vegetation management on a scale that can only be dreamt of in cities and towns. Farm vegetation has the added and no less important effects of protecting and improving soil quality, salinity control, pasture improvement and livestock production. This would suggest that perhaps farm vegetation should be worth more to the environment than island-like plantations resulting in desert wastelands at the end of their time.
Three questions must be asked:
1. Would the large plantation groups be less valuable to this argument if farmers were included in Carbon credit schemes. i.e. Is there silent lobbying of the PM from this area?
2. Are the vegetation management efforts of Australian farmers important to Australians?
3. Are Australian farmers becoming less relevant to Conservative governments because of their diminished voting capacities?

What do you think? (Click 'comments' below to leave your thoughts)

A Producer Writes To MLA Re. Cattle 'High' Prices

High cattle prices? Says who?
MLA should never print the words "high cattle prices" in reference to Australian cattle prices.
Whilst cattle prices are higher than previously, they are also lower than previously and certainly not at an historical high.
On a world stage however, Australian cattle prices are low.
The EYCI sits at 339, around $1.86 per kg live
US feeder prices are around 86.5 US/lb which is A$2.53 live, US prices are 36% higher.
In Japan, B2 carcasses are at just under $11 per kg and the A5 Wagyu carcass is at just over A$23 per kg equating to $4000 per head for dairy steers and $10,000 per head for high end Wagyu.
Australian cattle prices are certainly not high on a world stage.
The 2 decades of deflation in Japan have resulted in an expectation that prices will continue to come down.
Using high to describe Australian cattle prices in print merely reinforces this expectation with beef.
(This was sent to MLA by a producer in response to a statement in the MLA weekly publication, "Friday Weekly").

Are Labelling Laws An Issue To Australian Farmers?

The ABA has called on Minister McGauran to enforce his Government’s Labelling Laws on US/Brazilian Beef Imports. And its Chairman Brad Bellinger has stated that, "Australia, with our clean image and the very costly NLIS is bringing in product that could be contaminated in Brazil or the USA on its way here..".

(Click here to view the ABA media release click to view article )

Is this something that irks Australia's farmers or is the ABA for some reason way off the mark?

Do you think that such action could potentially damage the way in which other markets such as Korea and Japan view our meat health standards and as a result our own product that we are exporting?

What is the MLA's opinion on this issue?

What do you think? (click on the 'comments' link down to the right to leave your feedback)