Can Australian feed grain fuel Asia's growing pork production?

 

 

The pork industry alone will need Western Australia farmers to grow an extra 250,000 tonnes of feed grain a year within the next decade to meet future demand domestically and into Asia.

 

By 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organisation is tipping pork consumption for China alone to jump 23%.

 

According to an Australian Farm Institute Research Report into changing demand for animal protein in Asia, between 2007 and 2020 pork consumption in Asia is expected to rise by 17.7 million tonnes a year, of which 1.2 million tonnes will be imported and 16.5 million tonnes produced domestically.

 

The same report suggested that if global feed grain production growth trends over the past 30 years were projected to 2020, that at current rates, only a third of the projected future demand would be met.

 

David Lock, chief executive of Western Australia's biggest pork production and processing company, the Craig Mostyn Group (CMG), told participants at this year's Grains West Expo that he saw a bright future for pork production, given the projected growth, albeit with challenges of managing feed inputs.

 

Nationally, there are 265,000 sows, of which WA represents about 12%. Mr Lock said if Western Australia could capture 5% -- equivalent to 60,000 tonnes a year -- of this future Asian demand, coupled with an expected growth in domestic fresh pork consumption, in the order of 7,500 tonnes, it would require 18,000 pigs a week.

 

At any one time, CMG has about 60,000 pigs, or 25% of West Australia's total number of pigs, on the ground. Its abattoir, PPC Linley Valley at Wooroloo, employing 280 people, processes half a million pigs a year, 65% of which are from its own farms.

 

Mr Lock believes that to meet the market opportunities in Asia, there needs to be investment in growing facilities and transport infrastructure, possibly shared with Asian customers like the co-investment offer put to Australian pork farmers this year by the Singaporean Government to shore up its future needs.

 

He also said long-term feed grain supply contracts would reduce volatility for grain growers and pork producers, and he would like to see some sort of model where a portion of grain is grown as feed on long-term contracts indexed to cost of production.