JBS Australia halts some beef exports to China as meat workers test positive to COVID-19

JBS Australia has about 12,000 employees across its offices, abattoirs and feedlots, and exports to more than 50 countries.

Australia’s ambassador to China threatened a boycott of Australian products over the Morrison government pushing for a global independent probe into COVID-19 at the World Health Assembly. Picture: Chris Kidd

Australia’s biggest meat packer has halted exports to China from one of its Melbourne abattoirs after two workers tested positive to coronavirus.

JBS Australia has decided to voluntarily stop exports from its Brooklyn plant leaving Australia last week. All other JBS abattoirs are exporting as normal, a spokeswoman told The Australian.

“JBS Australia has undertaken, at its own costs, COVID-19 testing of its workforce at Brooklyn in Victoria, which began over the weekend, along with a thorough deep clean of the facility,” she said on Tuesday.

“We are working with the Victorian Department of Health of part of our extensive COVID-19 response plan for the site.

“JBS Australia made the decision last week supported by the Federal Department of Agriculture, to undertake a voluntary suspension of exports from JBS Brooklyn only, to China due to seeing the increase in positive COVID-19 cases in the Melbourne area.”

The voluntary export suspension comes after China banned exports from two of JBS’s abattoirs in Queensland last May.

China’s ambassador in Canberra, Cheng Jingye, threatened a boycott of Australian products over the Morrison government pushing for a global independent probe into COVID-19 at the World Health Assembly, warning: “Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’.”

A fresh spike in coronavirus cases is continuing to spread across greater metropolitan Melbourne, with Victoria reporting another 270 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, after the number of fresh infections dipped to 177 on Monday.

According to its website, JBS Australia has about 12,000 employees across its offices, abattoirs and feedlots, and exports to more than 50 countries around the world. It has nine abattoirs in Australia, including two in NSW and one in Victoria.

“JBS Australia’s firm commitment to quality assurance and the implementation of the highest food safety control measures throughout the entire supply chain guarantees the safest and most reliable meat products on the market,” the company’s website says.

“Our reputation for accuracy and attention to detail is reflected by our loyal customer base. We buy from Australia‘s best livestock producers to supply the world with Australia’s best beef, veal, lamb, hogget and mutton.”

In May, China - Australia’s biggest barley buyer - also enforced a punitive 80 per cent tariff on the grain, costing regional grain growing communities at least $500m.

Spillover

The trade tensions have also spilled into the cost of postage, with Australian businesses continuing to suffer under a United Nations agreement which means shipping of online goods is cheaper from China than from local suppliers, according to Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell.

Under the agreement, China is classified as a developing country, meaning it pays a cheaper rate of postage than countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, despite being the world’s second-biggest economy and home of the world’s biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba.

It means buying online from China can be cheaper than getting a comparative item from an Australian seller.

“My office has received a number of complaints from small businesses regarding the price competitiveness of domestic parcel delivery as opposed to international parcel delivery for same or similar products,” Ms Carnell told a Senate inquiry into Australia Post’s operations.

Additional reporting: Bloomberg