AUSTRALIA – New Board for New Pork CRC – June 22, 2011

AUSTRALIA – Ensuring Australian pork is a high integrity meat that is welfare optimal, environmentally responsible, safe and nutritious is the focus of the CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork.

Pork CRC Board Chairman, Dr John Keniry

Commencing on 1 July, the new Pork Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) will also have a new Board, with Andrew Spencer, Dr Hugh Wirth and Kenton Shaw appointed as Directors.

Replacing Paul Pattison, Associate Professor Wayne Pitchford and Andrew Maughan from 1 July, they will join existing Board members, Dr John Keniry (Chairman), Professor Simon Maddocks, Professor John Pluske, Dr Rob Van Barneveld, Rod Hamann, Sam McIvor, Brian Halstead and Nigel Smith.

Announcing the new Board, Dr Keniry said it was vital that Australia’s pork industry maintain local production of reasonably priced, high quality pork, produced at an acceptable return on capital invested, while improving pig welfare, the environment and consumer health.

He thanked the outgoing Directors for their outstanding contributions to the success of the inaugural Pork CRC and said he was confident their replacements, Andrew Spencer, Dr Hugh Wirth and Kenton Shaw, would build on the work of their predecessors, while bringing fresh ideas and new skills to the Board.

Mr Spencer is CEO of Australian Pork Limited, Dr Wirth, a veterinarian, is a former RSPCA Australia President and Kenton Shaw is General Manager, Production, of Rivalea Australia.

Australia’s pork industry has an annual farm-gate value of $1 billion, contributes $3 billion annually to the national economy and generates 8000 jobs.

Late last year the industry welcomed the announcement by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, to fund the CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork for $20 million over eight years.

The Pork CRC’s 40 participants have committed $18 million in cash and $94 million in-kind, to complement the Federal Government’s support.

The four research programmes of the CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork are:

1. Confinement free sow and piglet management
2. New generation health management and antibiotic reduction
3. Healthy pork consumption
4. Carbon-conscious inputs and outputs

Information ThePigSite News Desk

PHILIPPINES – One Ton of Tainted Pork Seized in Bulacan – June 03, 2011

PHILIPPINES – At least a ton of tainted pork was intercepted while it was being brought to the local market in Bulacan province’s Marilao town on Thursday night.

Police acting on a tip caught a tricycle driver transporting the meat in Loma de Gato village, reports GMA News, citing Radio DzBB.

The driver, initially identified as Reynaldo Bendam, was brought to a local police station for questioning.

Mr Bendam also faces added sanctions after he failed to present a driver’s license, the report said.

Thursday night’s incident happened when authorities were on alert against the selling of tainted fish from some areas in Batangas and Pangasinan that were affected by a recent fish kill.

In Metro Manila, authorities had seized several hundred kilos of double-dead fish during searches at public market stalls.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

THAILAND – UK Meat Firms Cash in on High Demand – April 12, 2011

THAILAND – Two UK-based companies in the livestock and feed industries are eyeing increased sales in Thailand, seeing the potential for economic growth to stimulate demand for meat, according to ACMC.

They share the view that Thailand has high potential to become a major market, as the country has high domestic demand as well as a livestock export industry that is growing significantly every year.

According to The Nation during VIV Asia 2011 showcase of industry’s development for feed and meat, Stephen Curtis, executive chairman of ACMC, a pig-breeding company from the UK, said steady economic growth had increased demand for pork and poultry in the Thai market.

Moreover, with a rising middle class, consumers will focus more on quality meat. Mr Curtis said his company could offer quality pig breeds to Thai farmers.

Growth in emerging markets in East Asia, particularly China, will also increase demand for meat.

ACMC can provide pigs with characteristics that add value for commercial farm producers. To increase sales in Thailand, the firm is negotiating with leading Thai pork producers and farmers to import its pig breeds, said Mr Curtis.

Sales volume to the Thai market is currently quite small, just a few thousand tonnes a year. But Mr Curtis expects expansion in the near future.

The company’s Meidam breed, a cross with GP Large Whites, produce large piglets with less fat and more meat at birth, so farmers have to spend less on feed to produce saleable slaughter pigs.

Also, ACMC has improved the slaughter-pig feed conversion of the Vantage breed.

The company selected boars by measuring their feed intake over the growing period, with only the most efficient ones chosen for breeding.

Both breeds are designed to increase pig producer margins and increase farmers’ income, said Curtis.

Meanwhile Tithebarn, a producer of livestock feeding supplements, also hopes to raise sales in Thailand after exporting 400 tonnes to the country last year.

Jeremy Sample, sales director of the company, said the firm expected to increase sales by at least 10 per cent to Thailand.

“Sales volume in Thailand, Asean and East Asian markets like China is expected to grow rapidly following steady economic growth in the region,” he said. Currently, South Korea is the company’s largest export market in Asia.

The firm expects sales volume in other countries in Asia, in particular China and Thailand, to grow to reach levels in South Korea as demand for meat grows.

Tithebarn has been selling its mineralised salt blocks – “Rockies” – to Thailand for more than 20 years. Its main distributor is Phillips International. Over the years, the business has grown from just a few containers per year to an annual average of 300 tonnes.

Rockies are highly compressed blocks made from major minerals and trace elements.

They are resistant to damp and wet weather conditions, which makes them ideal in the humid climate of Thailand.

Livestock lick the blocks, enabling them to get a regular supply of essential nutrients.

The company claims that correctly used, Rockies bring improved appetites, better digestion of feed, faster growth, improved milk yields and enhanced fertility.

Information ThePigSite News Desk

USGC sees potential in India

“India’s middle class of 100 million that is growing in size and income depicts a huge future demand for meat, milk and eggs,” said Erick Erickson, USGC special assistant for planning, evaluation and projects.  The U.S. Grains Council’s latest look at India illustrates both the long-term export potential and the constraints on grain sales. Mr Erickson said that India’s private broiler industry and commercial dairy industry are growing by 12-13% annually. India’s agriculture and food systems are responding in significant ways to the country’s economic growth – and over time that may offer opportunities to trade partners.

Information from Agribiz

Masterplan of Malaysia’s Halal Industry Development Corp (HDC)

Malaysia’s Halal Industry Development Corp (HDC) hopes to nurture several halal anchor companies as part of its master plan to increase the number of Malaysian halal players in the global market. This would represent its second phase of development following the first phase from 2008-2010 which is to develop the country into a global reference centre for halal integrity. The country is already a strong player in the area of certification. HDC has identified four key sectors to focus on under the master plan. They include speciality processed food, halal ingredientsand meat, poultry and fish products.

From Asian Agribusiness Group

India: Saying that the time has come for a “pink revolution” in India`s meat and poultry processing industry, said Food Processing Industries Minister Subodh Kant Sahai.

“The White Revolution has resulted in India getting a 15 percent share of the global market for milk and milk products,” Sahai said at the inaugural session of the first national conference of the National Meat and Poultry Processing Board (NMPPB).

“The time has now come for a pink revolution, that is, a revolution in your sector,” Sahai told delegates attending the three-day conference.  Stating that people spent 40-45 percent of their income on food, Sahai said, “You name any of the major global retail chains, 60 percent of their business is based on agri-business.”

He also said if investors and entrepreneurs failed to exploit the potential in the meat and poultry processing sector, products from other countries would enter the Indian market.

Sahai called for increased investment in the sector, and described the challenges as opportunities. “Invest in this sector,” he told delegates. “The buying power of our middle class consumers is increasing. Despite the global financial sector, the food processing sector in India grew in double digits by nearly 14 percent.”

NMPPB chairman K.D. Singh said India had the world`s largest livestock population. “We have got 50 percent of the world`s buffaloes and 20 percent of cattle. Yet, only one percent of meat gets converted into value-added products,” Singh said. However, he added, meat export from India was growing at the rate of 30 percent per annum.

Food Processing Industries Secretary Ashok Sinha said there was a growing need for setting up a chain of laboratories and training institutes to boost India`s meat and poultry processing sector. “The board (NMPPB) will give thrust to R&D (research and development) work in the sector,” Sinha said.

Report from Meat International

Vietnam has signed a veterinary agreement for allowing German fresh pork to be exported to the South Asian country, the German agricultural website Top Agrar reports

“This means we have set a major step to increase the cooperation between Germany and Vietnam, as agreed in a protocol in March 2009,” said secretary of state Ursula Heinen-Esser in a meeting with her Vietnamese colleague Tan.

As the ministry of agriculture has also reported, a larger share of the market in Asia is open to German meat production companies.

Information from : http://www.topagrar.com/