Red meat exports lift to Japan, China, South Korea

The latest figures reveal which overseas players buy the most Australian beef and lamb, and there are a few surprises on the list.

Grain-fed beef headlines a spike in red meat exports as Japan and South Korea both boost their intakes of Aussie beef, industry figures released today reveal.

An uptick from April to May has seen more red meat exported month-on-month, but Australia is still tracking behind total exports for the first five months of the year (down 5 per cent).

Exports of grain-fed beef in May were up 58 per cent on April figures and were 18 per cent higher year-on-year according to Meat and Livestock Australia, which released its global markets export wrap today.

MLA said this “made sense in the context of the growing feedlot sector” with the number of cattle on feed growing 26 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

“The growth in grain-fed export share contributed to considerable growth to Japan, Australia’s largest market,” the report said.

Japan took 25,606 tonnes of beef which is the highest amount since March 2020 and lifted its imports of grain-fed beef by 33 per cent (to 14,326 tonnes) and its grass-fed beef by 2 per cent (to 11,280 tonnes).

A similar trend to grain-finished beef was seen in South Korea, where grain-fed imports were up 10 per cent but it came at the cost of grass-fed beef where imports from Australia were down 4 per cent.

The lift in grain-fed beef added to an overall rise in beef exports, with 79,536 tonnes going to overseas customers in May, up 11 per cent from April and 4 per cent higher than this time last year.

Lamb exports were also up in May, with the 26,691 tonnes, up 3 per cent year-on-year.

The major customer remains the US, with 7201 tonnes, but Papua New Guinea was a standout in terms of increased imports, taking 229 per cent more lamb or a total of 2692 tonnes to emerge as Australia’s third-biggest customer for lamb.

China continues to dominate the mutton market, taking 38 per cent of the 11,554 tonnes exported in May.

To date this year, Australia has exported 57,577 tonnes of mutton, a 7 per cent increase on the same time period last year.