Gallagher News and Insights

Australia's meat and poultry food production sector is regarded as essential to the nation’s wellbeing by the country’s federal and state governments. During the ongoing pandemic meat products continue to be in high demand and to maintain continuous supply food production companies need to be confident they can prevent and mitigate any contamination threats.

The food and beverage production industry is Australia’s largest manufacturing group. Protecting these assets is fundamental to ensuring a productive and profitable future.

Obtaining critical insurance protection has become increasingly challenging for food producers, who must manage multiple areas of risk in their operations and are facing stringent risk management expectations from insurers. Our industry insight addresses the key areas of risk management, detailed in this comprehensive report produced with the Gallagher Food Production practice.

The high levels of automation that maintain food and beverage manufacturing efficiency and enable fast processing that retains the quality of the ingredients make the industry an appealing target to cyber criminals, as the recent ransomware attack on Lion’s beverage manufacturing operations on 9 June 2020 demonstrates. Here are some of the factors food producers should be aware of.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged Australia’s food production sector on all fronts — from a spike in distribution and transportation demands following a period of panic buying through to declining exports and slowing trading conditions in key markets such as China.