February 20, 2018
The Smithfield Cattle Company has appointed a new CEO with a long history in the beef industry.
Jason Strong, the former managing director and CEO of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo), is an experienced agribusiness and supply chain executive.
He played a key role in establishing objective carcase measurement and the world-leading Meat Standards Australia grading system – the only eating quality based grading scheme based on consumer taste tests.
He has owned his own cattle seed stock operation as well as three high-end butcher shops in Brisbane, and led Australian red meat market access and business development in Europe and Russia with Meat and Livestock Australia, before joining AACo in 2012.
The Smithfield position was not advertised and Mr Strong will operate from the company’s office in Brisbane.
Smithfield managing director Jason Shearer-Smith said Smithfield was looking forward to Mr Strong joining the company.
In the late 1990s, Mr Shearer-Smith and Mr Strong were partners in a Brisbane butchery.
Smithfield is a family-owned beef cattle business which finishes and markets cattle for the domestic and international beef markets.
It currently turns over between 85,000 and 90,000 grain-fed cattle each year, 80 per cent of which are company-owned.
The company owns two commercial feedlots – one at Proston, the other at Sapphire near Goondiwindi – and leases other properties.
Smithfield holds a major supply contract with Woolworths, and employs 50 staff.
One of Mr Strong’s first tasks will be to expand the Sapphire feedlot to its approved capacity of 20,000 head.
