The 'golden triangle' of Australia's beef processing capacity in Queensland and northern NSW remains heavily impacted by devastating floods.
The region is home to some of the country's largest processors, from Gympie in Queensland to Casino just south of the NSW border and west to Grantham.
The Australian Meat Industry Council says all have been impacted in a major way by the floods, especially Gympie, which was hit first, and hardest.
Whole abattoirs and work sites remain inundated, workers are unable to access the workplace and livestock cannot reach abattoirs.
These facilities contribute strongly to feeding Australian consumers with meat supply via supermarkets and independent retail butchers.
AMIC issued a release saying it applauded Federal Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud and Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner for immediately reaching out to impacted businesses and offering assistance.
"At this stage, we as an industry are still assessing the short-term damage as well as the medium to long-term impacts to processing capacity, infrastructure damage, insurance issues, and access to workforce and livestock," said AMIC CEO Patrick Hutchinson.
"The affected businesses and the Australian meat industry is very thankful for the offers of support from government, as well as the offers of support from our industry partners, however at this stage we need to assess the damage first before we can talk about what assistance is required.
"The severity of impact at this stage has been varied, from loss of processing days through to extensive damage to major processing and supply infrastructure.
"The resilience of our sector, which underpins livestock farming, and farmers, in this country, has once again taken a hit.
"It is important not to underestimate the huge impact this has on Australian farmers, producers, and processors. The whole post-farmgate meat supply chain is wondering how much more it can take."
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