China has become Australia’s largest beef and sheepmeat export market
China will finish the year as the largest export market for Australian beef and sheepmeat, announced Meat and Livestock Australia. So far this year, China has accounted for 23% and 32% of Australia’s beef and sheepmeat exports, respectively. This growth has been underway for several years, as an emerging class of affluent consumer’s increasingly demand quality meat, but has been supercharged by the significant hole African Swine Fever (ASF) has left in China’s domestic pork production.
Australia has not been alone in this pivot, with New Zealand sheepmeat and South American beef recording equally massive export growth to China over the last year.
New Zealand has sent 46% and 53% of their beef and sheepmeat exports, respectively, to China so far in 2019. Brazil’s beef export share to China, inclusive of Hong Kong, so far this year is 41%, while Argentina (75%) and Uruguay (69%) are even more highly geared towards the market.
However, meat production systems cannot adapt quickly enough, constrained by biology and resources, to keep pace with China’s insatiable appetite. Hence, some export markets have born the brunt of buying competition from China.
Part of the parts that were usually shipped to the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Canada have been sent to China. amb has been less affected by the draw of China, with export growth recorded across most major export markets so far in 2019.
Mutton exports, however, have declined across nearly all markets bar China, including the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Malaysia, compounded further by reduced sheep slaughter from July through to September. Carcass, leg and breast and flap remain the primary mutton items destined for China, with the greatest volume being redirected from frozen mutton carcasses previously exported to the Middle East. Goatmeat exports, a niche product targeting the US ethnic market, has not registered any trade redirection on account of China. "Australia, at the end of the day, cannot feed the growing appetite of China alone, let alone fill the gap left in the wake of ASF. Finding the most suitable customer for each red meat product across a diversified array of markets will continue to drive the value of Australian exports – not simply chasing one single market. However, the buying power of China and the impact of ASF will continue to be a key theme cutting across all global meat markets in 2020," said the association in a statement.
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