Global demand for beef to ‘rise and rise’: Cattle Australia boss

As the US comes out of a severe drought, Cattle Australia boss Garry Edwards says he expects global demand for Australian beef to keep increasing this year.

Australian beef producers should be feeling positive about to the year ahead, coming off record high prices and a strong global demand for beef, according to Cattle Australia boss Garry Edwards.

While the current Eastern Young Cattle Indicator sitting at 581c/kg, Mr Edwards said he expected to see it above 650c/kg later in the year, and that the global beef demand was continuing to “rise and rise and rise”.

“If you’re using an EYCI as an indicator, anything above 650c/kg is pretty good for producers, once it gets below 550c/kg it starts to get pretty tight,” he told The Australian Ag Podcast.

“But my indicator that I’m following is the volume of product we’re exporting because if you see what has gone to countries this year already, it’s quite exceptional compared to this time in 2023.”

With the US coming out of drought and a shortage of beef, Mr Edwards said Australian producers were in a good position for the next 6-12 months.

“The reality is that our products are exceptionally good, and therefore they should be rightfully competing for that premium end market,” he said.

“It’s much harder for places like Brazil and other countries that have larger beef herds to hit those quality markets, they tend to flood or fill the more commodity components that are out there.

“There’s a great opportunity (for Australia), and this is where we see our marketing dollars at work, that the reputation for Australian beef is very high around the world.”

Cattle Australia Chair Garry Edwards.

Mr Edwards said cash was also needed for more policy and advocacy work for the industry, with the industry current levy structures in need of improvement.

“One of the things people don’t understand is that there’s actually the sum total of $0 that comes out of the $5 MLA levy that goes into policy and advocacy work,” Mr Edwards said.

“There’s significant room for improvement because it’s a little odd to have an industry worth the billions that our industry is, and all this money going into (research and development) and marketing, but nothing formally going into policy and advocacy to help support this industry.

“I think there’s a great opportunity to look forward to what levy structures should be into the future.”

Mr Edwards said Cattle Australia “must” must play a role in lobbying and negotiating with governments.

“It’s the only organisation that has the legislative influence and capacity to do that,” he said.

“Unfortunately the MLA can’t do that on their own accord, or they put at risk all the matched government dollars (somewhere close to $100m) that goes into budgets and schemes that is critically important to the work that they do for our industry.”

The Australian Ag Podcast is sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions and you can listen to the full interview with Mr Edwards on Spotify or here.