Intensive livestock: Market prospects and issues

摘要

The theme for this year's ABARE Conference was Rural and Regional Australia moving forward. The current environment facing rural and regional Australia is not particularly encouraging: record fluctuations in exchange rate pressures, the continuing hangover of the worst drought in 100 years, protectionist trading policies of our competitors, the as yet unclear benefits of the Australian-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and recent changes in Australia's quarantine standards contribute to making the present environment very challenging. With this being the view from the farm, many could be forgiven for thinking that the only way forward for rural and regional Australia is actually out the back door. So, how does rural and regional Australia find positivesand move forward in the face of such adversity? How do we make the theme of this year's conference a plan for action and not just wishful thinking? Australia's pork industry provides a unique case study where all of these challenging factors can be assessed against the ultimate testing ground - marketplace success. This is where I can briefly shift to a less pessimistic vision and highlight the considerable successes of the Australian pork industry in the last six to seven years.