From paddock to plate: How Aussie beef is taking on the world
Beef is big business right along the supply chain — from farmers to processors, butchers and chefs. So what are the opportunities and challenges for the billion-dollar sector?
It’s a long road from the cattle stations of outback Australia to the dining plates of some of the world’s finest restaurants.
It is a journey not just measured in kilometres but in the blood, sweat and tears it takes to produce beef safely and sustainably in a global environment increasingly aware of where its food comes from.
But in good news for Australia’s 52,000-plus cattle producers, insatiable global demand for the premium protein continues to defy the struggles of a tough economy and cost-of-living challenges.
That’s despite difficulties across the entire supply chain – from farmers battling droughts, floods and fires, to processors grappling with labour shortages and container delays, butchers fighting to remain viable amid rising overheads, and chefs working to justify the cost of dishes served on white-linen tablecloths.
Experts agree: no matter how you slice it, beef is a sector breaking new ground.
Last year, Australia exported 1.34 million tonnes of beef, a staggering 24 per cent increase from 2023.
The surge was largely driven by a post-drought recovery of cattle numbers, which soared to 30 million cows, alongside a strong global appetite for Australian beef, known for its quality, sustainability and provenance.
Beef market analyst Matt Dalgleish says the nation’s beef industry earned $14 billion in 2024, up 22 per cent from the previous year and significantly more than a five-year average of $10 billion.
A big factor in this growth, he points out, has been the competitiveness of Australian beef against US product. He says six years of drought has reduced the US cattle herd to its smallest size since 1961, driving domestic beef prices to record highs.
“It’s meant they (the US) are taking more exports from Australia and are less competitive in (supplying) other key marketslike Japan, South Korea and China,” he says.
“Australia has managed to increase market share into these key Asian markets due to the US supply situation.”
Surprisingly, Australia is its own biggest consumer of beef. Internationally, the top three markets – the US, Japan and South Korea – consistently source everything from offal and trimmings to high-end Wagyu.
Meat and Livestock Australia, the industry’s research and development body, tracks sales of beef, lamb and goat while analysing their performance against competitive proteins such as chicken and seafood. Its market research says supermarkets dominate fresh meat sales, holding about 85 per cent of the market, while butchers account for the remaining 15 per cent.
When it comes to consumer spending, beef leads the way, making up 35 per cent of annual meat expenditure, outpacing chicken at 28 per cent, pork (12 per cent) and lamb (11 per cent). It’s this rusted-on market share that has the whole supply chain, from producer to processor to butcher to chef, optimistic for a future they know will have as many challenges as opportunities.
NATURAL EVOLUTION
Drive seven hours northwest of Brisbane, and you are in prime Queensland cattle country.
The route from the state capital to Injune, and the base for Jeremy and Julie Shaw and their herd of 1200 Angus cows, cuts a path through Roma, arguably Australia’s beef capital, home of big hats, big trucks and the nation’s biggest livestock saleyards.
Locals will tell you this is where Australia’s best beef is grown. An hour further north, it’s been a wonderful season for the Shaws, with a large body of feed and shiny, fat cattle on their properties as a result of rain at the right time and careful management of their land.
The Shaws, who run the JS Grazing business along with their two children Henry, 13, and Leo, 12, and Jeremy’s parents, Jeff and Jennifer, clearly love what they do.
Such is the passion from top to bottom that the boys, both away at boarding school, want their parents to tweak their management programs so they can be home for key events such as branding and weaning.
While producing beef is in the Shaw family genes, it’s been a rollercoaster ride over the past decade with droughts followed by record prices and then a market crash of biblical proportions during 2023 as stock plummeted in value in a period of mere months.
Maintaining profitability throughout these highs and lows, Julie says, has called for a business that is nimble.
What that means in practice is that a spreadsheet becomes just as important as a good stockhorse, and the accountant’s number appears on the phone as often as the livestock agent.
Julie acknowledges she’s the more risk-adverse partner – or “the handbrake”– in the business.
Over the past decade, the Shaws have moved in and out of grain-finishing cattle as the numbers for intensively feeding stock have not always stacked up. They have also sold off more distant properties to focus on improving their homeblocks.
“I know there are economies of scale, but there is a level of risk associated with expansion, and there are opportunities that come with zero or low debt levels,” Julie says.
“We feel that we can do more here, on our home base, to improve the productivity of our country, to grow more cattle on the same area, and lift our efficiency that way.
“That also fits with wanting to have a smaller carbon footprint – we place great importance on turning off the most kilograms of beef per year for our fixed cow number. That includes focusing on fertility and weight for age.”
Instead of grain-finishing their cattle – which once earned them up to $10 a kilogram of carcass weight and secured their product a spot on Coles shelves – they are now selling animals to feedlots, where the current market rate is about $4 a kilogram of live weight.
On paper, that’s a significant difference per head, though it comes with the benefit of a much-reduced cost of production.
But Julie says they are confident the reputation of their Angus herd means they will still command a premium, even if they aren’t selling finished stock.
“What we do has to work for us as a family and financially,” she says.
Tellingly, while both boys want to return home to run the family business, Julie is encouraging both to get, what she calls, a “side hustle”.
“We understand we are not a big operation, and so the ability to earn income off farm is something we seeas important,” Julie says.
There’s no disputing the passion, but Julie’s also a realist, carefully considering how the business fits into the future of the beef industry.
CHAIN REACTION
Almost 1500km south of Injune lies the small northern Victorian farming community of Tongala – population almost 2000.
The handful of shops and businesses straddling the main street belies the town’s status as an agricultural hub, generating notonly jobs but wealth.
Tongala is also the spiritual home of the Greenham meat processing company and from which current custodian Peter Greenham oversees a growing beef empire.
The Greenham name is synonymous with Australia’s red-meat industry, operating three export accredited processing plants – at Tongala, Moe in Victoria’s Gippsland region and Smithton in northwest Tasmania – supplying 25 countries as well as servicing a strong domestic market.
It’s a business that knows its business, thanks to six generations of family experience in the red meat industry – particularly beef.
Peter is across it all, well versed in both individual suppliers and, just as importantly, his customers, in particular the US market where about 50 per cent of the company’s beef is exported.
While Greenham’s reliable supply of beef means it’s been in butcher shops for decades, it was a move to differentiate above a simple commodity that saw the company develop the flagship Cape Grim grass-fed beef brand.
Cape Grim has earned an enviable reputation for its quality in consumer and food service in Australia and overseas – and it’s put the Greenham name on the map.
Rather than be daunted by an increasing raft of consumer demands such as sustainability and animal welfare, it has embraced them.
More than a decade ago, the company recognised shifting market demands and responded by developing the Never Ever Beef Program, offering consumers 100 per cent grass-fed beef, free from added hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified organisms.
But, as Peter notes, there’s often a gap between what consumers say they want and what they are actually willing to pay for.
Balancing these evolving expectations with commercial viability can be tricky.
Peter says while there is growing demand for verified natural and sustainable beef, price sensitivity remains a factor, particularly in certain markets.
“We find that customers – whether in the US, Australia, or other key markets – are looking for a balance of quality, assurance, and value,” he says.
The US market’s eager demand for Australian beef cemented it as the nation’s biggest customer during 2024, devouring almost 400,000 tonnes.
The stars have aligned for Greenham in the US, thanks to local supplies being diminished by drought, a continued popularity of grass-fed beef and a weaker Australian dollar against the US greenback.
Despite the costs of exporting and the strict quality standards, the Greenham beef remains competitively priced when it reaches US shelves.
But Peter acknowledges that the meat processing industry is not for the faint-hearted. Right now, processors hold the advantage in the beef supply chain with cattle prices having dropped from their record highs of three years ago.
Back then, when prices soared, the shoe was on the other foot. Greenham’s margins have fluctuated in response, reflecting the cyclic nature of the industry.
It’s been, in Peter’s words, “an absolute ride” with challenges such as labour constraints, container shortages and portstrikes adding to the daily complexities of running profitable abattoirs.
Yet the business continues to thrive, driven by international demand, which accounts for 70 per cent of Greenham’s beef exports mostly due to that unashamedly rock-solid commitment to quality.
Selling top-end steaks for $80 each isn’t the goal – that’sthe domain of small processors handling 20-30 cattle a week, not a large-scale operation such as Greenham, which processes thousands week-in, week out. Peter says the focus is on delivering consistent volumes of high-quality grass-fed beef, 52 weeks of the year.
FEEDING THE DEMAND
Greenham beef brands take pride of cabinet space at high-end retail outlet, Flinders + Co, among the bustle of the popular South Melbourne Market.
Four days a week, the larger-than-life presence of David Madden behind the counter will offer a serve of jokes and advice alongside the impressive display of meats, including four different grades of Wagyu beef.
The high-end butcher shop is a partnership between David and his son, James, who owns and operates the company’s premium meat wholesale business with a who’s who client list of big-name restaurants including the award-winning Pt Leo Estate on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, to Melbourne institutions Society, Stokehouse, Grill Americano, Maison Batard and Reine & La Rue.
The Flinders + Co evolution has a story attached, which James recounts with equal levels of amusement and incredulity.
In 2010, David bought a micro abattoir on Tasmania’s Flinders Island. With a background in both farming and themeat industry, David saw an opportunity to, in James’s words, make money in a vertically integrated system.
At the time, the abattoir was processing a unique mix of beef and wallabies, and David leased land, grew and processed his own lamb and beefand sold it to customers on the mainland.
James says it was not initially on his radar to come into the business, branding the venture “a lunatic move”. Yet somehow, it worked. David ran the Flinders Island business, and James took control of the wholesale arm.
Along the way, James found he had a knack and love for dealing with restaurants and chefs.
When the Flinders Island operation was sold in 2017, the wholesaling business had expanded to include distribution for a widerange of premium boxed-beef brands, and other proteins. It was then rebranded to Flinders + Co.
James says a key lesson was learnt in the harebrained venture: understanding there was a growing customer base that wanted to know how and where their beef was produced.
The opportunity lay with tapping into those for whom food is a passion, not just a fuel.
Given the father and son’s love of red meat, it was hardly surprising that in 2023, they relaunched into retail with joint ownership of Flinders + Co ‘The Butchery’ concept store.
Here, James says, is where David gets to ply his skills that are integral to what makes butcher shops work – a high-quality meat selection offered with service, knowledge and a relationship with customers.
As well as Greenham brands Cape Grim Beef, Robbins Island Purebred Wagyu, Bass Strait Beef, Wanderer Free Range Barley Fed Beef and Vintage Beef Co, The Butchery stocks Black Opal Wagyu, produced by Harmony Agriculture and Food Company, and Sir Harry Citrus Fed Wagyu from Elbow Valley Beef in Queensland’s Southern Downs, to name but a few.
“Dad loves it – he can tell the same joke 30 times a day and still get a laugh,” James says.
“He’s a consummate salesman – an old lady can come in for 200g of beef mince and walk away with 1kg of rib eye steak by the time he’s finished chatting. His passion is infectious.
“But customers come because he knows them by name. They can talk to a butcher, discuss the cuts and have a relationship andan understanding of where their meat comes from. We have seen increasing interest in the provenance of beef – customers wantto know the story behind what they are buying, whether that is at retail or wholesale level.”
Prices at Flinders + Co vary wildly, from $15 a kilogram for beef mince up to a whopping $290 a kilogram for top-shelf Japanese A5 Wagyu.
Buying patterns at the shop have changed amid cost-of-living squeezes, but rather than walk away, customers at retail and restaurant level have traded down, James says.
“We have seen less sales of high marble-score Wagyu, and more customers favouring lower marble-score Wagyu at a more approachable price point,” he says.
But importantly, the customers have kept buying.
“A person with a love of meat usually has a passion for cooking, but still with an eye for value,” James says.
At Flinders + Co, the relationship with customers, whether at the butcher shop or in the food service industry, is built on quality and service.
Restaurants can place beef orders until midnight for next-morning delivery, six days a week.
In the dead of night, the Flinders + Co team is hard at work, packing beef cuts at its Port Melbourne headquarters before dispatching them across Melbourne and Victoria in a fleet of nine delivery vans.
Though Flinders + Co supplies other meats, beef reigns supreme: from that Vintage Beef Co, sourced from breeding cows that meet strict Meat Standards Australia grading, to those four grades of Wagyu and even koftas.
James believes Australians don’t just buy beef out of loyalty – it’s ingrained in their culture.
“I don’t even think that Australian consumers are consciously loyal to beef,” he says.
“They buy it because they’ve grown up with it and they love it. It’s a part of the culture.
“Beef is king in our business, it’s king in Australia and in the US and probably almost every other market around the world.”
SERVE IT UP
The popularity of Australian beef, both at home and abroad, comes as no surprise to Meat and Livestock Australia’s corporate chef Sam Burke, who believes its versatility has cemented its place in consumers’ hearts and drives demand.
Calling Sam a red-meat fan is underselling his passion. Whether he’s in his chef’s whites talking to diners or chatting witha stranger on a plane, he’s determined to share his true love.
Over the past decade, he’s seen the beef industry evolve. Consumers are more discerning, both at retail and restaurant levels.
Brand recognition has grown, and so has awareness of specific cuts, right down to some burger outlets highlighting why they have included chuck and brisket in their patties.
Reality TV cooking shows have also played a significant role, along with the impact of Covid, which led to home cooks experimenting with new recipes and the theatre of food. Sam says it has all worked in beef’s favour.
“Chefs are influencers – they have helped build the romance around beef, the story around beef and the theatre of cuts like tomahawk steaks,” he says.
“Australian beef has a great story to tell the world, from our producers right up to our chefs.”
As one of the nation’s most revered and loved chefs, Neil Perry has an impressive understanding of every aspect of the beef supply chain.
The son of a butcher – and with three brothers also in the trade in Sydney – Neil grew up immersed in the world of meat. It was here that he developed not just an understanding of meat but the importance of seasonality and freshness.
“Dad really taught me what I know today about the importance of provenance, but also about sustainability, about using everything from nose to tail,” Neil says.
“As a kid, I remember we would have friends sleep over and we’d have crumbed sweetbreads for breakfast, and I suddenly discovered this wasn’t normal.”
That knowledge, ingrained from a young age, has been invaluable in Neil’s success as a chef.
He established Rockpool in Sydney in 1989 and later launched the Margaret Family group of restaurants, including the acclaimed Margaret, Next Door, Songbird, Bobbie’s and Baker Bleu, in Sydney’s well-heeled Double Bay.
Steak is a menu staple, with prices ranging from $55 to $340. Neil’s customers are not afraid to buy into the story of production – and pay for it too.
“As chefs, I think it is important we keep raising awareness of climate change, sustainable production, regenerative farming and the animal welfare aspects of beef,” he says.
“People who come to our restaurants know, understand and are prepared to pay for this.”
Over the past two decades, consumers have also become more educated about beef – particularly steak – realising that quality is not just about tenderness.
“We are starting to win this war, where the depth of flavour and the textural characteristics of steak are being understood and appreciated,” Neil says.
His menus feature plenty of steak, including Wagyu from renowned breeder David Blackmore, Hereford from Nick Venter’s CopperTree Farm in Victoria’s High Country and Cape Grim Beef from Greenham.
Neil’s personal favourite? A grass-fed Mishima Wagyu rib eye, with a marble score of nine. He loves how pasture-raising enhances its mouthfeel without the overwhelming richness of heavy marbling.
This exceptional cut also makes it on to his restaurant menus, albeit just one body a month.
Staying true to a nose-to-tail philosophy, the prime cuts are grilled while other portions go into tartare, cured meats oreven marrow dishes.
Neil’s global reputation as one of the nation’s, if not the world’s, leading beef chefs is well earned, but he’s quick to acknowledge the vital role producers play in this.
“As well as a butcher, my dad was also a keen fisherman and he taught me that freshness is key, but equally to build relationships with those you source from,” he says.
Connections that truly raise the steaks.
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