In a first for a large-scale brand in the Australian beef industry, JBS Australia has announced a paddock-to-primals traceability system for King Island Beef as part of the relaunch of its highly regarded brand King Island Beef.

The traceability system will link the customers of the brand with the individual farmer that raised the livestock for the specific cut of beef.

At an exclusive field day on King Island, cattle producers, suppliers and distributors, and flagship restaurant end-users engaged with the highly-regarded King Island Beef brand were brought together to hear the industry-changing announcement.

With the increasing demand from customers and end-users to understand where their food has come from, JBS Southern Chief Operating Officer Sam McConnell, said the program will follow the journey from paddock to plate, connecting consumers with the proud producers of the beef.

“It has been 12 months in the making and will be part of a larger blockchain scheme being implemented by JBS that will enable individual primal cuts to be traced back to the producer,” Mr McConnell said.

“We are very excited to implement the innovative system first at our Longford beef facility in Tasmania, where cattle supplied by our King Island producers are processed.

“As the system evolves, it will be rolled out at our Brooklyn plant in Melbourne.”

In the pipeline for the past 12 months, JBS Southern’s Beef Sales Manager Robert Ryan, is pleased to see the rebrand and launch of the program come to fruition.

“We have re-designed packaging and printed promotional material about the product which will be available in selected flagship restaurants around Australia who have partnered with JBS,” he said.

“The program and relaunched brand will enable the customers to tell the story of each individual producer providing the product, as these primal cuts are being bought and served to consumers in their restaurants.

“It is an innovation that parts of the market have demanded for some time, and we are proud to be the first to deliver a solution.”

Sourced exclusively from picturesque King Island off the coast of Tasmania, King Island Beef is a part of the Great Southern group of brands, underpinned by JBS’ innovative Farm Assurance Program.

“In addition to the raising promises the brand makes, which are underpinned by our third party verification process, the King Island Beef brand is all about where is comes from –King Island. Therefore, there is no more appropriate brand for us to launch this innovative traceability system with than this,” Mr McConnell said.

“As a leader in the branded beef space, the modern and innovative approach to traceability within our Great Southern Program ensures customers and consumers are engaged in the process and can trust where their food has come from.

“With the ongoing exchange of information in the Great Southern Program between farmers, customers and end-users, our new traceability tool will allow our producers to become a key part of the brand story and its provenance.”

Andrews Meat Industries General Manager for Foodservice Jacinta Geddes, believes the traceability capabilities they can provide to customers will improve the engagement within the supply chain.

“This is such an important step forward for our industry – bridging the final hurdle of traceability and provenance to our end users,” Ms Geddes said.

“As a foodservice supplier, we are excited to be able to bring our chefs a product with these credentials and give them the opportunity engage more fully with the whole supply chain.”