About QAF Meat Industries
QAF Meat Industries is wholly owned by QAF Limited "The QAF Group" of Singapore .
QAF's other principal activities include the manufacture and distribution of bread, bakery and confectionary products; cold storage warehousing; trading and distribution in food, beverages, food related ingredients and commodities through out South-East Asia.
QAF Meat Industries of Australia is the largest producer of pigs and pigmeat in Australia and the region.
QAF Meat Industries Today
QAF Meat Industries (incorporating QAF Feeds) is a vertically integrated company comprising Stockfeed Milling, Farming Operations, Pork Processing, Sales and Distribution.
2001 saw the head office shift from Melbourne, Victoria to Corowa, New South Wales. Corowa is situated down stream from Albury on the Murray River.
Quality and Food Safety are vital concerns for a major food producer:
- QAF Farming Operations achieved APIQ accreditation in April 2001. All company owned and contract pig farming sites are accredited.
- QAF Feedmill achieved Quality Assurance Certification SQF 2000 in November 2002.
- QAF Processing is ISO 9001/2000 and ISO 14001/2004 accredited and HACCP certified.
QAF is committed to ongoing research in a broad range of areas related to the production of pork. These areas include plant breeding, nutrition, farming systems, animal welfare, processing systems and meat science.
At the Corowa site, QAF has established a dedicated 1600 sow Research & Development farm. A focus of this unit is animal welfare and the construction of deep litter sheds to house pregnant sows was completed in March 2002.
July 2002 saw the construction of a new microbiology and meat science laboratory. Samples are analysed for organisms important in food safety and shelf life.
November 2002 a new AI Centre was completed. This centre houses approximately 300 boars in 2 sheds and a separate laboratory, processing all the company semen requirements.
QAF has a dedicated Environmental team who develop environmental protection programs that will ensure the long term sustainability of all QAF sites.
Employees
Section |
Full Time |
Casual |
| Abattoirs | 160 | 62 |
| Boning Room | 93 | |
| Farming Ops | 404 | 44 |
| Feedmill | 57 | 6 |
| Sales | 19 | |
| Admin | 69 | 7 |
| Total | 802 | 119 |
Stockfeed
The Corowa Stockfeed mill is capable of producing 450,000 tonnes of stockfeed per annum and ranks among the largest producers of stockfeed in Australia.
320,000 tonnes is consumed by the company farming operations with the remaining tonnes being sold to the free trade market. Free Trade customers include dairy, pig and poultry farmers, and horse breeders.
A smaller mill also operates from the Balpool piggery near Moulamein in southern NSW producing 35,000 tonnes of stockfeed per annum for use on site.
Where the sites are situated
Farming Operations
QAF is the single largest pig producer in Australia, producing 20% of the national pork volume. With total production in excess of one million pigs per year, it is four times larger than our nearest competitor and ranks in the top 30 worldwide.
The rapid expansion of the contract farming business over recent years now sees approximately 50% of all QAF pig production coming from this source.
Water for the Corowa farming operations and abattoir is pumped from the Murray River via a pipeline for some 7.5kms to large storage dams. The daily consumption of water is in the vicinity of 5 Million litres per day and a minimum of 2 months water is stored on the property.
In most years, 2,000 hectares of dry-land crops (wheat, barley, lupins) are sown, whilst 1,000 hectares of irrigated crops are sown annually.
Farming Sites
Site |
Property Size (Ha) |
Pig Numbers |
| Corowa | 2501 | 230,000 |
| Huntly | 555 | 66,200 |
| Balpool 1 & 2 | 5532 | 58,500 |
| Gre Gre | 946 | 70,500 |
| Bungowannah | 94 | 11,500 |
| St Arnaud | 231 | 8,600 |
| Willow Grove | 79 | 7,500 |
| Total | 9938 | 452,800 |
Production Systems
QAF has 4 sites which operate under the Birth to Bacon system.
- Corowa
- Balpool 1
- Huntly 2
- Willow Grove
Birth to Bacon units comprise all aspects of pig production from breeding to point of sale. (approximately 23 weeks)
QAF have 4 major breeder sites and 6 contractors which operate under the Segregated Early Weaning system.
- Bungowannah
- Huntly 1
- Seville
- St Arnaud
QAF have 2 main progeny only sites and 60 contractors growing out the pigs within the Segregated Weaning System. Pigs are housed on straw or rice hulls in Eco shelters.
Segregated Weaning
Piglets are born on a breeder site and are then transported at 15 days of age to a weaner facility. Weaners at 8 weeks of age are transported to either a contractor or another QAF site to be grown to meet the requirements of the domestic or export market.
Processing
The QAF abattoir is the largest pig slaughter works in Australia processing approximately 1 million pigs per annum.
- Only pigs from QAF owned or contracted farms are processed at the Corowa plant.
- An integrated on site boning room is a major advantage in achieving the highest standards of meat quality, hygiene and export sales.
Sales
QAF production is sold as fresh pork into the retail sector, to manufacturers for further processing and for export.
An increasing proportion of export volume is achieved through further processing into higher value products.
Exports
QAF accounts for approximately 30% of all pork exports from Australia, and is a prominent member of the Confederation of Australian Port Exporters, a body set up to actively promote Australian pork into growing export markets.
Chilled pork sides to Singapore and boneless chilled pork to Japan are our main export products to overseas customers.