Australian Pork Limited is a producer-owned organisation supporting and promoting sustainable development of the Australian pork industry.

Pork consumption in Australia is stable at a per-capita basis, with consumption effectively doubling in the South-East Asian market (over the last 20 years). Due to superior product quality and safety, Australian pork exporters are well placed to capitalise on the growing demand associated with projected population growth, although the industry faces a number of challenges, particularly relating to inefficiencies in the regulation and planning process that may impede sustainable development of the sector.

NCE were engaged to identify and quantify inefficiencies in the regulation and planning approvals process.

A measuring regulatory burden approach was taken to identifying the costs associated with regulatory burden, including financial, compliance and other costs. This approach included reviewing relevant documentation and data, undertaking a series of semi-structured interviews with a range of state and local government regulatory and planning staff, producers of varying sizes, investors and consultants who regularly work with industry, and econiomic modelling to estimate the cost of inefficient regulation on piggery developments of varying hypothetical sizes.

The project findings will be used by Australian Pork Limited to address inefficiencies in the planning and approvals process in consultation with regulatory bodies and producers, and to provide information to producers and investors on the potential costs associated with development of piggeries.