THE recent blaze at the Murray Bridge Thomas Foods International (TFI) meat processing plant has had little impact on the market at the Mount Gambier saleyards following the first sales at Glenburnie on Wednesday.
Saleyards manager Peter Mitchell said the price dropped slightly across the board, however it was no different to anywhere else across the state.
“It dropped a little bit, so it obviously had a minor effect to the market, but it wasn’t significant,” Mr Mitchell said.
“It was actually better here than it was at Naracoorte.”
Mr Mitchell said while some of the price-drop could be put down to the tragedy at TFI, there were a number of other factors that contributed to the change.
“A number of other things contributed to the price-drop including supply and demand, the US dollar and meat availability in Mexico and the United States of America,” he said.
“TFI were still there buying lamb and sheep, however they weren’t purchasing cattle.”
On Tuesday, Mount Gambier saleyards agent David Creek labelled the multi-million dollar fire “nothing short of a tragedy” for the farming and meat processing industries.
“The blaze is essentially like a bushfire for the industry, it is just devastating for everyone affected,” Mr Creek said.
“In my time, it is most definitely the worst incident I have seen in the industry in South Australia.”
With 1400 employees facing an uncertain future following the blaze, Mr Mitchell agreed the incident was devastating, despite the saleyards not being directly aligned with the impact.
“As a saleyard we’re away from it, but it is definitely a tragedy for all involved given the impact it will have on some families and the community,” Mr Mitchell said.
“That’s 1400 people not getting paid a significant wage and a lot of that money would have been re-invested back into the Murray Bridge community.”
Mr Mitchell said it was great to see TFI had supported employees by offering work at its other plant in Lobethal.
“I know they have upped their production at that plant since a number of the staff moved up there to continue working,” Mr Mitchell said.
