Butcher trainee numbers plummet in QLD, despite demand for the skill higher than ever before
The future of this longstanding trade is under grave threat in Queensland – and it’s not because of Covid-19.
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The humble Aussie butchery is under threat with the number of aspiring butchers cleaved in half over the last seven years, with pockets of Queensland left with just a handful of trainees.
The number of butcher apprentices nationally has dropped from 5000 in 2013 to just under 2500 at the end of last year, with Queensland the most severely impacted.
And the peak retail body for the meat industry has warned education funding will be key to protecting the “last bastion of the window to the bush”.
In the South East Queensland electorates of Oxley, Rankin and Blair the number of apprentice butchers has fallen by up to 95 per cent over the last seven years, according to data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
As at the end of 2020 there were just eight trainee butchers in Rankin, which is centred in Logan, from 103 in 2013.
Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said the expansion of supermarkets as a one-stop shop over the last four decades had led to a shift from stand-alone artisan butchers to large distribution centre butchers.
He said a “patchwork” of funding for TAFE across state and territories had also led to the decline.
“People are interested in the trade, the problem we’ve got in dragging people in is (the ability to give) them access to the most effective training,” Mr Hutchinson said.
He described butchers as the “last bastion of the window to the bush” for people living in the suburbs.
The drop in butcher trainees comes amid a job resurgence in the sector, as consumer demand bounces back in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and renewed appreciation for cooking.
The number of butchers in jobs in Queensland in May this year was 8,900, double the figure from the same month in 2016.
Opposition skills spokesman Richard Marles blamed the Coalition for causing the skills shortage by underfunding the vocational education sector, criticism the federal government rejects.
Federal Employment and Skills Minister Stuart Robert said federal Labor’s attack on TAFE funding cuts was a “de facto criticism” of the State Labor Government — which controls TAFE.
Federal funding to Queensland via the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development increased from $309 million in 2019-20 to $320 million in 2020-21.
Gabe Mahoney, from independent butcher Meat at Billy’s, is one of just a few hundred apprentice butchers left in the state.
He move to the industry as a qualified carpenter because he found it “intriguing”.
“I’ve always found the entire process of butchery intriguing – turning a basic raw product into something pleasing to look at and of course pleasing to taste,” he said.
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