Coronavirus: meat the new field of panic buying

Unprecedented demand for beef mince at the country’s biggest supermarkets has seen orders soar from five tonnes on a normal day to 25 tonnes.

Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson. Picture: Ted Sealey

Unprecedented demand for beef mince at the country’s biggest super­markets has sent orders soaring from five tonnes on a normal­ day to 25 tonnes in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, as Scott Morrison calls on Aust­ralians to be “responsible” and stop panic buying.

Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said mince, sausages, lamb legs and chops had been some of the most popular items and declared meat supply had to be viewed as an essential service during the coronavirus outbreak.

“We really need to be prioritised in a number of key areas, including­ providing our workforce with personal protective equipment, test kits and obviously because there’s a large amount of our workforce that is not born in Australia and have visas, a lot of those visas could be running out,” Mr Hutchinson said.

“We’ve got to keep this product moving through the system. It’s not like toilet paper. This is a long supply chain and it’s a supply chain based in rural and regional Australia. It underpins tens of thousands of jobs in rural and regional Australia and we’ve got to make sure it’s continually ­moving.”

After a roundtable meeting with Industry Minister Karen Andrews­ and nearly 30 groups representing some of Australia’s major suppliers, Mr Hutchinson said certain visa categories, such as 417 working holiday visas, should be extended by up to 12 months to ensure demand for meat was met as quickly as possible.

The industry has been told large flat-top freezers have sold out. “People are putting away to consume over months,’’ Mr Hutchinson said. “What happens to those businesses when there’s a potential drop in patronage because­ people are still going through what they already have?”

The Prime Minister told Aust­ralians there was no issue with food supply but warned: “What there is an issue with is the ­behaviour of Australians at supermarkets. That is what is causing stress and the strain. The food supply­ in Australia … I think we can feel quite confident about.

“If Australians can respond to that in a responsible way then that won’t lead to the shortages that they’ve seen on shelves and it will mean that all Australians can get access to the things they need when they need it.”

Supermarket giants have put product limits on items such as toilet­ paper, hand sanitiser, pasta, rice and even eggs to try to prevent panic buying, with Australians taking a growing number of products­ off the shelves as fast as they’re being put there.

Australian Food and Grocery Council acting chief executive Geoffrey Annison said the supply chain had been ramped up with increased­ production while stock in storage was also being drawn down. “(The increased demand) can be managed for months but it will manifest itself with continued shortages across some categories,” he said.

“There’s no immediate problem. Our advice is still consumers should shop in a normal way and restrict purchases to the ones they need immediately and give the supply chains time to catch up.”

The roundtable hosted by Ms Andrews heard anecdotal evidence that supply chain restrictions in China were easing.

“The consistent thing being said by the people making the food through to the people selling it is the same — we have enough but the hoarding needs to stop,” Ms Andrews said.