Meat processors plan lockdown livestock shuffle to combat COVID-19 restrictions

Tough new measures to limit the rampant spread of COVID-19 in Victoria is forcing meat processors to quickly draw up contingency plans to ensure supply chains remain uninterrupted.

There is planning to divert livestock to regional abattoirs and interstate ahead of the “spring flush” of animals to be slaughtered. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Meat processors are hastily drawing up plans to divert livestock to regional abattoirs and interstate ahead of the “spring flush” of animals to be slaughtered.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has tightened restrictions on the state’s meatworks as part of stage-four restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus in greater Melbourne.

Abattoirs have been linked to a series of clusters, particularly in Melbourne’s inner west with Cedar Meats, which had another worker test positive last week, being an early coronavirus epicentre.

JBS Meats in Brooklyn also had workers test positive, as did the Australian Lamb Company in Colac more than 150km away.

While the number of meat workers allowed at each site will reduce by about 33 per cent under new restrictions, fuelling fears of a meat shortage, processors and farmers have another looming problem: what to do with thousands of head of livestock set to be slaughtered in spring.

Some processors are considering sending animals interstate, given livestock can cross borders, while others are exploring diverting them to regional abattoirs.

One meat processor told The Australian that while these ­options were being considered, “labour will be the issue”, adding it was “a mess”.

The inflow of migrant workers has slowed, affecting staffing levels at abattoirs, while some plants have been forced to shut their doors, including JBS in Brooklyn. Victoria also employs about one-quarter of Australia’s red meat and livestock workforce, says Meat and Livestock Australia.

Meat processors contacted by The Australian said they were still waiting further clarification about the restrictions.

Jim Leighton, chief executive of listed poultry processor Ingham’s, said while the company was yet to receive a formal directive from the Andrews government, the new measures would hit its facilities at Somerville in Melbourne’s southeast and Thomastown in the city’s north.

“The measures announced in Victoria will require our team to manage more complexity,” he said. “We are unwavering in our objectives of ensuring the health and safety of our people, preventing the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities and in Victoria, ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, and servicing customers and consumers in Australia and New Zealand.”

Victorian Farmers Federation vice-president Emma Germano said it was speculative to suggest how meat volumes would be affected, urging Victorians not to panic buy. “The metric is around reducing the workforce, so, yes, you could say ‘purely with a reduced workforce you are going to see a reduced output’ — that’s a commonsense understanding at the moment,” Ms Germano said.

“What we know speaking to the Agriculture Minister is that they are more than willing to work with the Department of Health and Human Services and abattoirs. It’s about the peak number of staff they ordinarily have and reducing that by 33 per cent.”

She said it was too early to estimate the size of the spring flush, but abattoirs were already processing record low volumes of meat.