Key players remain optimistic for WA processing, while farmers lambast PM for live export ‘disconnect’

Key players in WA’s meat processing industry maintain there is a “promising future” for the sheepmeat sector despite a Wheatbelt abattoir’s recent closure triggering worries about eroding confidence. Minerva Foods shuttered its abattoir in Tammin without notice on January 6, bringing an end to what was the shire’s biggest employer by a “significant margin”. The Brazilian agribusiness giant has now effectively pulled out of WA, after having shut its Shark Lake abattoir, near Esperance, in September 2023. V & V Walsh general manager Brent Dancer said it was “always disappointing” to see another player exit the industry, whether permanent or temporarily, and said smaller abattoirs such as the one in Tammin could be particularly prone to the high costs of running a business. “They’re always a challenging asset to maintain if you don’t have the volume going through, and in some of those regional areas . . . finding skilled labour is also quite difficult,” he said. Mr Dancer also said producer confidence had “no doubt” been “shaken” by the looming live sheep export ban, set to come into affect by mid-2028. However, Mr Dancer also said he still had “huge confidence” for the trajectory of the meat processing industry, saying V & V Walsh — one of WA’s biggest meat processors and exporters — had plans to continue to grow its business in terms of size and capacity. “We think that there’s a lot of blue sky, and a lot of huge opportunity for people right through the value chain in the lamb sector,” he said. “So, we’ve got complete confidence and we hope a lot of others within the industry can have that same confidence.” A PROBLEM ‘YOU CAN’T THROW MONEY AT’ The Prime Minister was quick to extinguish the idea that the Tammin abattoir closure was linked to the live sheep export ban at his most recent trip to WA. When asked about the abattoir’s closure at a door stop, Anthony Albanese replied, “it’s a processing facility, not a live export facility . . . and that’s a commercial decision”. WA Nationals candidate for Senate and Keep The Sheep campaigner Paul Brown slammed the response as “disconnected” and “callous”. “Processing facilities like Tammin are closing because farmers are leaving sheep farming, and record numbers of sheep are being trucked to the Eastern States in pursuit of higher prices,” Mr Brown said. “I expect even more processors will be forced to shut the door because Mr Albanese has walked away from his commitment to them, just has he has walked away from farmers, shearers, truckies and regional communities in WA.” Mr Albanese also said sheep meat exports had been rising as live exports declined, and the Government would continue to follow through with the live export ban. “We’ve been to multiple elections and we’ve provided certainty by providing that timeframe going forward,” he said. However, Episode Three market analyst Matt Dalgleish likened the Albanese Government’s transition plan to building a house “out of order” and said the “hasty fashion” in which the ban would be implemented is making the supply chain lose confidence in the sheep sector. “Imagine you’re trying to build a house and you start trying to do the frame before you put the slabs down. You can’t do it,” he said. “You can’t do it until the foundations are down . . . it doesn’t matter if I throw thousands and thousands of dollars at the construction of my house, I still have to do it in the proper sequence.” Mr Dalgleish said simply injecting money into processing sector would not address the decline of WA’s sheep flock, which is already expected to decline to 6.63 million in 2025, a 2.43 million drop from 2024.