How to future 'proof' selling Aussie beef into the EU  

How do beef producers get a competitive advantage on the international stage?  

One speaker told those attending a seminar on securing market access at Beef 24, that the answer was: “We need to validate what we’re doing.” 

Marg Will, who has extensive experience in standards development and implementation, told those attending the seminar titled “How are we securing our future trade – market access” that new European Union (EU) Standards would be firming up international trade requirements and that Australian producers needed to be prepared. 

“In the future, only sustainability labels based on official certification schemes or established by public authorities will be allowed in the EU,” Ms Will said. 

“Additionally, the direction will ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.” 

So, she can see the writing on the wall, that Australian producers need to start working on accreditation systems and validation for what they are doing, to not just achieve a premium in the marketplace, but to have access to the EU at all. 

“We can make lots of self claims about what we’re doing, like we’re using pain relief, but how are we proving that?,” she said, 

“We need to be aware there’s going to be a certification requirement around our sustainability requirements. 

“If we sell in the EU we are going to need some sort of validation to take into the market.” 

She acknowledged that we don’t sell a lot of beef in the EU, but a lot of the banking sector operates in the EU and would be bringing these requirements to Australia. 

“The people who lend us more money to go buy more cows care about this,” she said. 

Ms Will also said that validation of what is known as our “clean green” reputation would make Australia stand out from all the other “clean green” countries producing red meat around the world.