Meat industry
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The value of the meat industry to gross domestic product was $14.8 billion in 2003-04. The industry comprised almost 6,000 enterprises and employed 51,000 people. Today it employs around 56,000.
Growth in the Australian meat industry has traditionally been driven by strong domestic and overseas demand. However, more recently, international competition has intensified and is forecast to continue.
The meat processing industry comprises abattoirs, smallgoods operations (including wholesalers) and meat retailers. The industry has developed progressive training packages and qualifications designed for the career paths in each sector. More than 80 registered training organisations now provide meat processing qualifications and up to 85 per cent of all meat processing workers have qualifications or are training towards recognised qualifications. Main industry sectors:
- Meat processing
- Smallgoods manufacturing
- Food services (incorporating wholesale)
- Meat retailing
CLICK HERE Meat Industry Standing Committee
Previous meat training packages - Australian Meat Industry Training Package MTM00
Work in the industry
The jobs and workplace functions covered by this training package are from entry level through to middle management and include:
- Labourers on slaughter floors, in boning rooms and rendering plants
- Packers in smallgoods and abattoir operations
- Stockmen, skin and hide processors, offal processors, chiller and freezer operators, load out
- Personnel and production clerks
- Process workers in the smokehouse, pickling, manufacturing, fermentation, kitchen, meat receiving and preparation, pre-pack and dispatch areas of smallgoods manufacturing plants
- Slaughtermen, boners, slicers and rendering plant operators
- Food-service personnel in wholesale and retail establishments
- Quality assurance officers and meat safety officers (meat inspectors)
- Butcher in the meat retailing trade
- Meat workers in supermarket meat departments
- Sales and packaging staff in meat retailing outlets
- Managers of micro and small meat-retailing businesses and combined meat-industry operations
- Managers of meat retail departments in supermarkets
- Owner-operators of meat-retailing businesses and small combined meat industry operations
- Supervisors, leading hands, foremen and team leaders in meat retailing, smallgoods, food services and abattoir operations
- Area, regional and state meat managers in supermarkets
- Middle managers in abattoirs, smallgoods and food service operations
Abattoirs: Australia has approximately 300 abattoirs (including boning rooms) with a workforce of around 25,000. It is a predominantly young workforce with around half of all workers younger than 35. The sector has a high level of participation in structured training with about 10,000 workers attending training each year.
Smallgoods: The Smallgoods sector, which includes large manufacturers, employs around 6,800 workers at approximately 160 mainly urban-based establishments. Product is mostly for the domestic market and there has been a steady increase in large scale manufacturing and new product lines.
Meat retailing: Meat retailing includes independent butchers, supermarket butchers and meat departments. There are approximately 24,000 employees in Australia and around 1,000 new apprentice butchers each year. There are regular increases in new product lines featuring new cuts and value added products.