Coonabarabran residents have even more reason to keep money in the town and shop at their local butchers.

Meat products are becoming scarce, causing prices to rise at supermarket chains.

However, the shortage hasn’t hit our butchers as hard, as they source most of their products locally.

Owner of Krysties Quality Meats, Frank Harris, explained the situation in regards to the shortage being felt around the country.

“The problem is there’s not enough workers to get through the work,” he said.

“It’s not exactly a shortage of meat, it’s more of a shortage of the workers.”

Mr Harris went on to use Tamworth as an example.

“Usually the abattoirs in Tamworth have 250 staff working during the day. The other day they struggled to get 50,” he said.

But he said the situation had a silver lining for small country towns such as Coonabarabran.

“It’s a win-win for the smaller towns,” Mr Harris said.

“We don’t have a shortage of meat, so we can supply it and the local producers do better out of it as well,” he said.

“It’s another reason people should buy locally because it benefits everyone.”

A spokesperson from Binnaway Meat Processors confirmed business had picked up locally, with kills on the rise at the abattoir, which is having a positiveflow-on effect.

“While the supermarkets are struggling with supply, we’re picking up here, as more people shop at their local butchers so the demand is picking up; we’re going through more kills and our workers are getting more hours, so its benefiting a few people in the long run,” he said.

“And then, of course, there are the local farmers who are doing pretty well out of it as well.”

Wally Dafter, from Dafter’s Quality Meats in Coonabarabran, said there were no issues with his supply of quality meat.

“All our meat is provided locally, so we’ve got everything - beef, lamb and pork.

“We’ve noticed a few more customers coming in because they say they can’t get it at the supermarkets at the moment and, hopefully, they see the benefit of buying locally in the future and we get more regulars out of it.”