11 August 2008

2 minute read

Oceania

He said, Australia has the lowest cattle prices in the developed world, Australian consumers pay some of the highest prices in the developed world. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out that somewhere between the cattle producer and the consumer there must be is a huge 'robbery'.

According to Mr Bellinger, 'This simple equation was too hard for the ACCC Grocery Inquiry and they went with NFF and DAFF who claimed that international comparisons 'were difficult'. The ACCC then went on to compare the major supermarket performances (beef excluded) with international benchmarks! They chickened out of the tough one.'

Mr Bellinger continued, 'If ACCC and NFF believe that our two major supermarkets are only working on beef 'mark ups' of 3% and 17% as they are claiming, they clearly believe in the tooth fairy. I challenge the two organisations to find where in the beef chain the great $4 billion dollar 'robbery' is occurring.'

He said, 'When the unsubsidised US cattle producers can get up to 40% more than their Australian counterpart for exactly the same feeder steer and the US consumer is paying as little as half the Australian consumer, we have a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes. Assertions by highly paid meat bureaucrats that 'it is always been that way' or 'it is different in the US (and South America, and Europe)' must now be ridiculed.

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