Photo of participants
Funded by the Australian Government, the Aus4Skills Program, in conjunction with Meat & Lamp; Livestock Australia (MLA) and Livecorp designed the “Managing Abattoirs, Training and Exchange of Skills” (MATES) and later expand to MATES Plus.
The objective of this project is to help Vietnamese abattoirs treat live cattle in ways consistent with Australian standards and to bridge the gap between current traditional beef processing and modern beef processing to allow improved competitiveness with imported products and to provide a higher quality product to consumers.
Quality asurance system
Vietnam is the second Australian beef importer, just after Indonesia, and is the main growth market for Australia’s export industry. However, Vietnam has yet to exploit its full potential of traceability and creating added value for beef products, which limits the owners of abattoirs’ profits and the quality of products has not been improved with consumers. Meanwhile, Australia has a long history of meat processing and is one of the leading countries in beef production and processing, especially in terms of food safety standards, traceability and quality meat.
Building upon the success of MATES, through a joint program between MLA and Livecorp called the Livestock Export Program (LEP), support has been provided to accelerate development of the Vietnamese market. This resulted in the MATES Plus project which was set the task of designing and implementing a quality assurance and quality control system for hygienic processing of chilled beef. A selected number of Vietnamese Chilled Beef Processors were invited to participate in the project to implement in their plants at their own factories.
Experts at the factory
Key associates at each participating enterprise were trained by experts from Response Group from Australia and equipped with basic knowledge of the process of quality control and assurance. At each facility, experts have assisted businesses in developing manuals for processing staff following the safety and hygiene process and monitoring the implementation of the new process.
Recipient of the Program Completion Certificate
Both Vietnamese enterprises participating in the project – KPT and PaCow – have built an initial basis for the Quality Assurance system, including guidance on the personal hygiene processes, factories and products. Thanks to these movement, enterprises has built their own confidence to provide stable and safe quality beef products to consumers. In addition, the Quality Assurance units at these two businesses are now capable of managing and conducting internal inspections, ensuring all standards are followed. This process can also be applied in other businesses, if it is desirable to have a good quality control and assurance system.
Recipient of the Program Completion Certificate
Aus4Skills, an Aus4Vietnam Investment, is a five-year program providing support to Vietnam to achieve the shared goal that Vietnam can access and use high-level professional and technical knowledge, skills and competencies to contribute to the country’s sustainable economic and social development, and enduring links with Australia. Au4Skills is managed by Coffey International Development Pty Ltd, a Tetra Tech Company.
Apart from the prestigious Australia Awards Scholarships program, the Australian Government is providing human resource development support to Vietnam with Aus4Skills being its primary delivery vehicle. The support focuses on four priority areas: Promoting Industry Linkages with Vocational Education and Training, Improving Quality of Universities in the Northern Mountainous Region, Advancing Women in Leadership, and Supporting Australia’s Broader Interests.
