CHARTERS Towers remains high on the list of locations to visit for international beef industry figures with representatives from Texas, USA in town this week.
Charters Towers Regional Council Mayor Frank Beveridge hosted Bill Pendergrass, executive vice president of Texas-based Beefmaster Breeders United and Jon Garza from the Texas Department of Agriculture during their visit last week.
The pair was accompanied by Morgan Gronold, Trade and Investment Queensland’s advisor for western Queensland.
“I draw a lot of encouragement from the continuing flow of significant industry figures interested to find out first-hand what the Charters Towers region has to offer,” Cr Beveridge said.
“We had a very fruitful discussion with Bill and Jon who proved they certainly are knowledgeable in beef industry matters,” he said.
“Jon Garza manages most of the live cattle exports from Texas and he was keen to meet us because of our involvement in the North Queensland live export trade. Jon and Bill also attended Beef 2015 and have been visiting grazing properties as well as meeting with Biosecurity Queensland and representatives from the Port of Townsville.”
Cr Beveridge was accompanied by CEO Mark Crawley and Council’s Director of Planning and Sustainability Ramon Jayo in hosting the visitors.
The itinerary for the day included a visit to the Dalrymple Saleyards facility.
“Our visitors this week were very interested in how we do things.
“We also had healthy discussions on beef industry and live cattle export trends. From that I discovered how much common ground we have with Texas.”
Cr Beveridge said the Texans were very interested in Australia’s NLIS – the National Livestock Identification System.
“The NLIS is world best practice in cattle identification and traceability so they were very interested in the procedures followed.
“But we discovered that USA is well advanced with futures trading in meat, something that is yet to come in Australia. Beef producers in the US can lock in a price with a meatworks 12 months in advance so that has its obvious advantages.”
Cr Beveridge said every international trade visitor to Charters Towers assisted in raising the profile of the region to key players in the beef cattle export and meat processing industries.
“Council will continue with its efforts to promote our region in the way we have been.
“We have made a lot of progress over the past 24 months and we are determined that this momentum will continue.”
