collaboration and cooperative capital
It comes as little surprise that one of the largest employers on the Northern Rivers is a co-operative, and with Casino being the beef capital of Australia, the industry makes sense too.
Northern Co-operative Meat Company (NCMC) is Australia’s largest meat processing co-operative and has been running since 1933. It’s 100% owned by its 1000 members – made up of graziers, pork producers and operators – and it employs 900 people across three sites in Casino and Booyong.
NCMC CEO Simon Stahl says the Northern Rivers has a long culture of people working together in business.
“It’s an essence of the region – it is actually the co-operative capital of Australia, with the heaviest concentration of co-operatives than anywhere else in the country,”
When the business was founded more than 85 years ago, most of the produce went to Sydney wholesale markets. These days more than 70% is exported to markets across Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia and the US.
As well as processing and distributing meat, there is also a hide tanning business in Casino (Casino Hide Tanners) that produces first class wet blue leather for export to China, India and Italy. While NCMC Foods is the marketing engine that supplies top shelf meats into restaurants, supermarkets and distributes world-wide.
Simon says Northern Rivers is the natural home for this business. “It’s perfectly positioned – we draw livestock from the best farming regions and we’re just down the road from the Port of Brisbane – a major export hub.”
The success of the Northern Rivers region as a whole has helped NCMC thrive over the decades, Simon says.
“This south-east corner is a huge growth market – particularly with tourism – and while that’s not necessary for our business, we can be successful on the back of it because it brings a greater range of services and it also brings a workforce.”
Despite the global reach of NCMC’s sales, there’s a strong local focus when it comes to running the business.
“We have a ‘buy local’ focus – it’s part of our collaborative DNA to buy local where we have the skills and services on the Northern Rivers.”
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