Beef Australia confirmed for May 2021
The Beef Australia committee has announced that the show will go on in May 2021.
Speaking in Brisbane on Thursday morning, chairman of the Beef Australia board Bryce Camm said they were delighted to announce that the event is officially on.
“The work has been put in to ensure this will be a safe, enjoyable and exciting celebration of one of Australia’s most important industries,” Mr Camm said.
“We will be opening the gates to Beef Australia to celebrate what is one of Australia’s greatest industries – the Australian beef sector.
“The board undertook a tremendous amount of work in the background to deliver a COVID Safe event and we now have that confirmation and approval from the state government that Beef is on in 2021.”
Beef Australia chief executive officer Ian Mill said they were proud to be able to host the event in Rockhampton next year.
“The fact that a number of events have been cancelled over the past few months, like the Ekka and the Royal Easter Show, the industry is looking forward to an event like this,” he said.
“Given COVID has presented to us a bit of a challenge of not being able to entertain our international visitors, we now believe, given the technology available, we can reach millions of people overseas and we can also reach a national audience.
“We haven’t stopped planning, haven’t stopped working and we are ready to go.”
The event brought in close to $85 million to the Rockhampton economy in 2018 with more than 100,000 visitors through the gate, and Mr Mill said they believed their comprehensive COVID plan will allow for the same amount of attendees in 2021.
“The plan that we put to the Chief Health Officer [Dr Jeannette Young] was based on the health restrictions of the situation six weeks ago, and we since know there have been tremendous relaxations of those,” he said.
“We don’t think it will impact the event at all, we’re looking forward to going ahead, and as we get closer to the event we hope there will be more relaxations and we will be able to have as many people as we want.”
Mr Camm said there had already been high engagement from exhibitors and trade site holders.
“There’s so much economic resilience in the Australian beef industry at the moment, that those involved in the sector and those looking to work with the sector are really keen to come and get involved,” Mr Camm said.
“Beef Australia has had a proud history over its years of the event of adding new additions to the experience.
“One thing the board is very proud to bring to the event in 2021 is the Ken Coombe Tech Yards which will be a celebration of innovation, which the beef industry has a proud history in, but also looking at the great advancements in ag tech and supporting what will be one of the most important industries in this country.”