Meat industry recommendations should be heeded

OVER THE FENCE

BY JON MORGAN

OPINION: This is how meat industry insiders describe their industry: "There is a greater history of bitter struggle, betrayal, outrage and simmering resentment than there is of creative innovation, shared accomplishment and wealth creation."

Shocking. Could there be anything worse you could say about your working environment?

How about this: "There are powerful national organisations in this industry, all with the ability to frustrate the will of each other. We have not delved into the pathologies of those but experienced their influence in the lives of the people we met."

These comments are from papers sent to me showing the workings of a group of industry volunteers - mostly second-tier management - as they attempted to put together a plan to improve working conditions and profitability in the meat industry.

It was inevitable that the plan would meet a stone wall - and it did - but they persisted just the same. The comments of this group of 20 representatives of meat companies, government departments, unions, truckers and farmers should be heeded.

Worthy efforts to improve the meat industry's profitability are under way but they are destined to founder, just as many attempts have before them, if the culture of resentment, backstabbing and distrust cannot be changed.

Yet there is hope. These people showed that.

They came from a group already brought together to look at labour problems in the industry and they followed an exploratory process developed by Wellington change managers WEB Research designed to uncover the truth.

This is how it was explained to me: "You are asked to describe the whole system you work in and then it comes down to the skill of the researchers in getting the invisible drivers and barriers in the system out into the open. The check about whether what you are saying is true or not comes from the other people saying, 'That's not how we see it'.

"Over time, a real picture of how the industry actually works emerges. It's a description of the meat industry and its dynamics as the players see, hear and feel and direct their own strategies in response to it.

"And once you've got that picture you can say, 'What would happen if . . . ?' and then you can put the absolute unthinkable on the table. All the fear about change and altering things goes out the window and you just get insiders talking about how they can fix the industry."

What a glorious opportunity. Wouldn't we all jump at a chance to air our views about how we could improve the industries we work in.

The result was a plan - sketched out on the farming page, C4, today - that many will dismiss as idealistic and unrealistic. Considering the dissonant state of the industry that may be true. But this is a time when such well- informed views from within the industry are badly needed.

The report and its accompanying discussion papers are a big read and are as yet unpublished, which is a shame.

Such an in-depth study of the culture of the industry is rare - the only similar research that I can recall is the excellent industry history Meat Acts, by Mick Calder and Janet Tyson, now 10 years out of date. I understand the report has been passed on to the Beef + Lamb/Meat Industry Association meat industry taskforce but I fear its key recommendations will be outside that body's no-serious- meddling mandate.

That leaves the Government as the only authority capable of giving this report the considered attention it deserves.

The report allows for this, saying the Government could choose to act if it decided the industry was harming its potential to generate wealth, was damaging the economy by locking 25,000 people into low wages, low skills and low productivity, if changes to the industry's values and behaviour would improve life for people in rural towns, or if a plan for change existed that was more likely to succeed than previous attempts.

And there is a plan. It's lacking in detail at the moment - but I'm sure the fine points could be filled in readily enough if the industry was of a mind to. But, sadly, that's unlikely to happen.

With their plan worked out, some of the group looked for support so they could trial some of the ideas, but they found neither a champion nor a funder.

What a letdown.

If only the Government could step in, but it will want to wait until the industry strategy exercise has run its course. I predict this will turn out to be a wishy-washy affair, restricted to pointing out a few market opportunities and supply chain efficiencies, not the major overhaul that is desperately needed.

Without government intervention, the industry seems to be destined to fulfil the "last man standing" prophecy uttered by a frustrated Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper.

At least he is not giving up. New hope for the industry emerged in the past week with the Silver Fern-PGG Wrightson- Landcorp venture to create a "plate to pasture" supply chain.

Landcorp's involvement is crucial and could be what swings other companies in behind the concept.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Neither are the members of the industry group.

Here's another quote from their report: "It seems that the default strategy for the meat industry is likely to be to let anyone who wishes to have a go and let the market sort it out. But on the behaviour we have heard described it seems unlikely that it is possible to create a sustainable and profitable meat industry for NZ Inc in the future."

- © Fairfax NZ News