UNIFYING producers, facilitating greater supply chain integration and reinforcing a positive image of beef production - these are the big ticket items on the agenda for new Cattle Council of Australia chief executive officer Duncan Bremner. Mr Bremner will take up the reigns mid-January, following the announcement in October that Jed Matz will step down after ten years with the peak producer representative organisation. Having served as CEO of Animal Medicines Australia and the Australian Road Train Association, and held a range of senior roles in government advocacy and public relations internationally, Mr Bremner said the CCA role was “a return to his roots”.
His upbringing and early working life was based around the cattle industry, from his family’s grassfed, feedlot and cross-breeding interests in Central West NSW to working on stockcamps in the north. Mr Bremner wants the focus to be firmly on securing the avenues that makes cattle producers, and indeed the entire beef supply chain, profitable and lays the foundations for a long-term sustainable and resilient market place.
“With the majority of our beef exported, we need to continually be looking to maintain and build on our valuable markets,” he said. “Australia enjoys a well-earned reputation for producing the best beef in the world and we have to maintain that edge as competitors like Brazil make themselves known.”
Key to that would be “greater clarity for the consumer because at the end of the day that is where the buck comes from,” he said. To that end, increasing awareness of the product, the animal and the production process should be a priority, he believes. “Reinforcing a positive image of this industry is something we all need to take on board,” Mr Bremner said. “Mainstream news about our industry is often focused around negatives and often based on misinformation - it’s up to us to change that.”
Stemming the “running down of the industry” from within would be the first place to start, he said. Acknowledging the relative high number of breakaway producer representative groups within cattle production, he said unity was always a big hurdle for advocacy groups.
Developing harmony, through working where there was common ground and under a policy of consultation and collaboration, would be the way. “We want to really find the direction this industry wants to go and run that through the filter of public policy and political and trade agendas,” he said. That same collaborative approach should be taken to supply chain integration in order to identify where relationships can be improved to the advantage of the producer, according to Mr Bremner.
On the subject of CCA’s financial viability, he acknowledged the need for a long-term funding stream and said structures were being put into play that would be the beginning of that. “I am very confident there has been a lot of work done in the last few years in establishing this organisation to be at the forefront of peak beef industry representation,” he said. “It is important Cattle Council continues to be recognised as a robust, influential, effective voice for the industry - through influential policy development, effective advocacy of those policies and positive promotion across the domestic and global supply chain of the Australian beef product.”
Mr Bremner also plans to turn a keen eye toward growing southern membership. “In 12 months time I would like the entire industry, from the most southern to the most northern producer, to see a deep value in being involved with CCA,” he said. “There is superb work being done and producers can be passionate about their representative body.” CCA president Howard Smith said the appointment of Mr Bremner signified a new era for the organisation. “Mr Matz has contributed significantly to the organisation over the last ten years and thanks to his leadership Cattle Council is in strong position to tackle future challenges and rise to the opportunities presented along the way,” Mr Smith said. “As we welcome Duncan Bremner as CEO, I have every confidence that he will do an exceptional job at leading the organisation into the future and continuing to represent the needs of beef producers across the country.”
This article was originally sourced from Queensland Country Life and written by Shan Goodwin.
