General News
27 January, 2022
‘Busier than expected’: Horsham butchers faring well amid national food shortage
Horsham butchers provide their insight to how business has been following the start of 2022.
HORSHAM butchers have stated there is nothing to fear at the moment when it comes to any shortages of meat supply in town.
Many supermarkets have continued to see supply chain shortages affect stock levels across the country due to COVID-19 and high rates of absenteeism. However, business has never looked better for our butchers.
Wimmera Meat Market owner Dominick Van Dyk said he’s been experiencing higher than average business compared to last year’s sales.
“We’ve been good, we’re happy we’ve been getting people through the door and being able to supply them with what they want … it’s actually been busier than expected this year,” he said.
“We’ve been picking up customers from supermarkets because they’ve had empty shelves.
“Chicken’s probably been the biggest problem for us … we have had shortages there because chicken meat factories are so highly processed and labour intensive.
“Abattoirs have experienced shortages so it does create a hiccup in the supply chain; but it is something you can work around reasonably well and we’ve been able to do that so far.”
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Horsham City Meats counterhand Terri Wachsmann said staffing has been an undeniable issue for their store and the meat industry, but is also something affecting many other businesses.
“We’re doing okay,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say we’re experiencing a meat shortage, it’s more to do with getting staff to process the meat in abattoirs and that sort of thing.
“I know a couple of our companies we work with have got certain areas closed due to there being a staff shortage; which is a result of COVID-19 of course.
“We’re also having issues with staff shortages, but a lot of people around town are having a similar problem.”
Mr Van Dyke said that he is very comfortable with the supply chain structure he has in place for his store and gave much credit to the Australian Meat Industry Council in their efforts in addressing problematic issues such as around staffing.
“We don’t go through the sort of chain that, say, supermarkets do where they have a lot of people along the way handling their product, with freight etc.
“We’re still managing to get the product … butchers will generally have the most product available.
“The Australian Meat Industry Council has worked very hard with federal and state governments to try and make sure that the supply chains are able to continue operating and they’ve done a great job at that.”
