Local abattoirs are a strategically important but overlooked component of food system and regional development policy and investment. As processing infrastructure, they underpin market access for livestock producers, and influence transport requirements, animal welfare, transaction costs, regional employment, and supply chain resilience.

Macdoch Foundation commissioned Nous Group to assess the current landscape of access to local meat processing for the small-to-medium livestock sector.

Their new report, Fragility to Resilience: Local Meat Processing in Australia at a Crossroads, draws on input from more than 450 livestock producers, alongside interviews with processors, butchers and restaurants across the country. Of the producers surveyed, 38% say they are not confident of maintaining access to processing, and 66% say they would have no viable alternative if the current processor closed.

The report findings point to a major structural challenge: access to processing is becoming one of the most significant threats to the viability of small and medium-scale producers who make up the majority of Australia’s livestock farms. Farm businesses who want to own and sell meat under their own brand – with high animal welfare, environmental and paddock-to-plate credentials – are especially exposed.

The objective of this report is to better understand what is at stake, and to help inform the policy, investment, and industry responses needed to ensure Australia’s food system is diverse, resilient, and regionally anchored.

You can read the full and summary reports here.