V&V Walsh committed to growing opportunity for lamb and mutton production in WA

Maintaining sheep numbers is top of mind for WA’s processing industry as growers continue to make decisions to downsize or remove sheep from their mixed farming operations. Last week one of WA’s largest processors, V&V Walsh, opened its doors to media and local government to facilitate a transparent view of its facilities and goals for the future. The Bunbury plant is one of the biggest employers in the region and has made a significant investment in upgrading its facilities to supply growing global demand for red meat, as well as continuing to supply major supermarkets and other domestic customers. The walk-through hosted by Craig Mostyn Group chief executive Wayne Crofts and V&V Walsh general manager Brent Dancer detailed how the processor is working to maximise value throughout the supply chain by improving its efficiency. Mr Dancer said the potential for red meat exports from WA was huge and V&V Walsh sometimes struggled to meet demand for certain products. He said the company’s recent $50 million investment in a 4000sqm, three-story cold storage facility was one way V&V Walsh had improved efficiency within its supply chain. The facility can chill or freeze up to 65,000 cartons of beef, mutton and lamb at a time which help’s alleviate supply ups and downs caused by seasonality, and in turn is helping facilitate V&V Walsh’s ability to pack and store larger volumes of product lines export customers are chasing. Mr Dancer said being able to supply certain cuts at volume, particularly in export markets, resulted in better pricing and was helping V&V Walsh extract value from some cuts which previously have not been an easy sell. Offal is one area that benefits from volume sales to export markets, with improving value of these types of cuts (such as tendons and aortas) important for improving the return on the whole animal. Mr Crofts acknowledged current concern in WA’s livestock industry over the live export trade but wanted to assure sheep producers there was a strong market for all red meat with huge potential to grow. He said to ensure the future success of WA produced sheepmeat, the State must maintain its sheep numbers and grow volume. Volume ensures efficiency across the entire sheep and lamb supply chain including the viability of WA abattoir assets already operating. He said developing more sophisticated production supply chains would underpin the future of this industry. For producers wishing to achieve higher prices for their livestock, V&V Walsh were paying a premium for lambs between a fat score of two and four and a carcase weight of between 18 to 32kg. Mr Dancer said all types of sheep were being bought, with those not meeting weight and fat score requirements being sent to their feedlots. More backgrounding and feedlotting assets were being developed, with Mr Dancer assuring producers V&V Walsh “do not just take the cream” and will buy whole mobs. He said there were different markets for the lighter end of lambs such as the Middle East, however not all markets including the Middle East were buying full carcasses. Finding a market for all cuts produced by all types of animals was part of maximising efficiency in the supply chain and returning this as value for both livestock producers and customers. With one million sheep and 60,000 cattle processed by V&V Walsh last year, this was a lot of markets to find and efficiency to be maintained and improved. Mr Crofts said 2700 Property Identification Codes were scanned through the abattoir during the last 12 months, which meant the facility was working with a lot of livestock producers across the State and committed to ensuring the ongoing prosperity of everyone involved in the industry. V&V Walsh is one of the Craig Mostyn Group’s companies with the group having a huge investment in protein production across Australia. Craig Mostyn Group companies also include Linley Valley Pork which processed more than 15,500 tonnes of pork products during 2023, Talloman which processed 180,000 tonnes of WA’s abattoir animal by-products, and Eastern States-based aquaculture company Jade Tiger Abalone which sold 300 million tonnes of live and canned Abalone. Mr Crofts said Craig Mostyn Group had been invested in protein trading for 50 years and had leverage of scale across the group. For V&V Walsh, supplying supermarkets continues to be a big part of the business, however 65 per cent of its sheep meat was now exported. Mr Dancer said Europe and Malaysia were the only markets V&V Walsh did not have access to with China, the US and the Middle East the company’s biggest export market destinations in terms of volume. “Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea are all higher-value markets,” Mr Dancer said. “We have a lot of individual cuts going to different markets.” Mr Crofts said in the future the industry would benefit from more investment in opening up markets. However, industry consultation was needed to ensure it was the right investment and not a duplicate of what was already under way. Already market access was being tackled by AusTrade, Meat and Livestock Australia and many individual companies and industry groups. One of the biggest hurdles for WA when it came to market access was cargo room and costs for chilled freight on international flights. Mr Crofts said more needed to be done to bring WA into line with its Eastern States competitors in relation to the cost and availability of chilled freight on airlines leaving WA. Currently the price difference was in the vicinity of $25/head for a 20kg lamb carcase leaving WA in comparison to the same size carcase leaving the Eastern States. “We need to unlock the inequality of air freight,” Mr Crofts said. Currently chilled air freight per carcase destined for Kuwait was $26 to $28 more expensive than eastern states chilled air freight rates with carcases destined for Dubai between $30 to $32 more expensive than when compared with the eastern states. WA chilled air freight space was also in demand for products such as crayfish and avocados, and mining equipment. Unlocking this bottleneck in the supply chain would help facilitate WA’s ability to supply the growing demand for all red meat around the world, he said.