Australian exports on track to break records
Beef
Beef exports have lifted 27% from November 2023 to 118,878 tonnes. Keeping with the trend seen so far in 2024, much of the lift in exports was directed to the United States (US); exports lifted 79% to 35,026 tonnes (30% of total exports).
Exports to North Asian markets were broadly steady. The second largest market throughout November was South Korea, with exports lifting 5% year-on-year to 19,001 tonnes. There was an ease in exports to Japan by 2% from last year to 17,515 tonnes, and exports to China held steady from last year at 16,336 tonnes.
Substantial growth was seen in exports to South-East Asia. Beef exports to Indonesia lifted 50% from last year, exports to the Philippines rose 2,432 tonnes and exports to Vietnam more than doubled to 2,021 tonnes.
Year-to-date, Australia has exported 1.216 million tonnes of beef. This is 25% more than the first 11 months of 2023, and is only 70,834 tonnes short of the all-time calendar year record (set in 2014). Given the small gap, and continually high weekly slaughter over the past few weeks, it is very likely that Australian beef exports this year could achieve highest on record.
Lamb and mutton
Lamb exports fell 9% from last year to 27,183 tonnes, while mutton exports lifted 42% to 28,249 tonnes.
The US remained the largest market for lamb, with exports lifting 10% from November last year to 6,774 tonnes. Outside of the US, exports generally fell; exports to China fell 14% to 4,372 tonnes. Exports to the United Arab Emirates also fell 3% to 2,570 tonnes.
Over 50% of mutton exports went to China, with volumes lifting 50% from last year to 15,526 tonnes. Outside of China, strong volumes were seen in a wide range of markets; exports to Malaysia lifted 65% from last year to 2,695 tonnes, exports to the US lifted 55% to 1,932 tonnes and exports to Singapore lifted 33% to 1,267 tonnes.
So far this year, 331,037 tonnes of lamb have been exported and 229,312 tonnes of mutton have been exported. In both cases, the year-to-November export total is larger than any previous calendar year total, meaning that 2024 is the largest year on record for sheepmeat exports, with a full month’s reporting remaining.
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