Gov’t grant to boost biosecurity effectiveness within red meat industry

ExoFlare has received a $300,000 grant to develop a real-time data driven approach to assessing biosecurity risks in the red meat and pork sectors.

This project is one of 14 to receive funding under Round 2 of the Australian Government’s Traceability Grants Program and is geared to show the value of strong and effective biosecurity to protect Australian agriculture.

Related: Western Game Processing receives grant to enhance game meat traceability

Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud said that it was vital to bolster biosecurity to protect Australia’s agricultural sector.

“When it comes to biosecurity, complacency is not an option,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Two of the biggest risks to Australian agriculture are African swine fever and foot and mouth disease. These diseases would be absolutely devastating to the pork and red meat sectors if Australia was to have an outbreak,” he revealed.

The minister continued that the project will enable biosecurity data from across the pork and red meat supply chains, from producers to raw input suppliers, to be shared and analysed in new ways to improve the detection and management of risks before they can become a problem.

He said that eventually, the project could be applied across other sectors as well.

“We know that consumers in Australia and internationally want greater transparency and real time advice about the origin and safety of product in the modern digital marketplace,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Projects like this, that shore up the safety and reliability of Australian products, will give Aussie exporters the competitive edge,” he said.

ExoFlare Founder, Adrian Turner, said the company was thrilled to receive the grant.

“We are excited that this project will enable us to explore new and secure ways to collect and share biosecurity data across government, academia and industry,” Turner said.

“So much of the reputation and market access for Australia stems from our status as a clean, disease-free country. It’s important that we look at the ways we can protect our industry,” he concluded.

Source: Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management media release