Australian red meat exports hit by the events of 2020

What effect did a year of pandemic, restocking and trade tensions have on Australian red meat exports? Here’s what the data shows.

China remained a key export market for Australian red meat last year. PICTURE: Madeleine Stuchbery

CHINA remained the key export destination for Australian red meat in 2020, despite a year plagued by trade tensions and coronavirus disruptions.

The latest Department of Agriculture red meat export figures showed total Australian red meat exports for 2020 fell more than 14 per cent compared to the year prior, from 19.55 million tonnes in 2019 to 16.74 million tonnes in 2020.

The top three destinations for Australian red meat last year were China, with exports dropping 30.76 per cent to 318,970; Japan, with exports dropping 7.6 per cent to 304,512 tonnes; and the US, with exports sitting at 303,912 tonnes, a 12.79 per cent decline on 2019 levels.

Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource and Economics head of agricultural forecasting and trade Jared Greenville said drought in Australia was the key driver of reduced red meat exports.

“The national sheep flock and cattle herd is run down to the lowest level we’ve seen in a long time,” Dr Greenville said. “We had really high female slaughter rates in 2019 into the first part of 2020. That persisted a bit longer than we thought. As conditions improved, and we had good pasture growth … there’s been a drive to restock.”

Dr Greenville said while the volume of exports had declined, the value of red meat exported remained stable.

“That’s largely the hangover from African swine fever,” Dr Greenville said.

“There are still trade tensions, but we are still selling into China. That’s all due to African swine fever. If they get that under control, you will expect to see that drop away.”

Dr Greenville said while a drop in lamb exports was expected, the decline from 281,518 tonnes of lamb exported in 2019 down to 263,870 in 2020 was surprising.

“We had some pretty strong export growth into China, but that seemed to drop back quite quickly, faster than previously anticipated,” he said.

A recent ABARES report forecast a 9 per cent decline in the average price of lamb exports in 2020-21, with lower international and domestic demand for lamb off the back of fading African swine fever-induced demand.

“As a sector, we are still producing a product that the world wants. Hopefully, in a few years we’ll be back to a world that makes more sense to us,” Dr Greenville said.

“We’re producing a product of growing demand, internationally. We’re well set up, as long as we can deal with some of the challenges in front of us.”

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