Inspectors return, New Year grading next issue

BEEF processing returned to normal this week, having been disrupted last week at a number of plants by the dispute over rostering of veterinary inspectors.

Agreement is now in place which hopefully will see the inspection process through to the end of the year without further problems, with the Department of Agriculture saying that there is sufficient money in the kitty to carry the cost to the end of 2003.

It is difficult to measure the impact the disruption had on the beef trade last week. Throughput did not appear to have been affected, with a kill of more than 40,000 head, but whether or not prices would have strengthened more without the reduction in kill at some of the factories for most of the week remains a matter of opinion.