Australian beef exports: the real story behind China’s growing appetite

Australian beef exports to China surged 45 per cent in April — but experts say it’s too soon to credit US tariffs for the spike.

China’s imports of Australian beef are up sharply — but it’s too early to draw conclusions about the influence of US-imposed tariffs on global meat trade.
In April, China imported 21,752 tonnes of Australian beef — up 45 per cent year-on-year.

However, Meat and Livestock Australia global market analyst Tim Jackson said this was not necessarily a sign that tariffs were starting to affect global trade flows.

And it will be May, tallying year-to-date total exports, when the story will be told, he said.

US President Donald Trump announced a raft of tariff measures on American imports on April 2.

Australia exported 127,172 tonnes of beef in April, up from 112,000 tonnes in March and bringing the total for the first four months of the year to 438,146 tonnes.

“Overall beef exports were pretty substantial in April, and that’s a flow on from high slaughter rates in late March and early April,” Mr Jackson said.
He noted that the timing of public holidays and Easter, falling later this year, meant the short processing weeks would affect May exports rather than April.
“What we have seen last month (April) is similar to what we have seen to date this year,” Mr Jackson said.
“The US was still our biggest market with 37,213 tonnes, up 37 per cent year-on-year.”

There was little change to the nation’s major customers. The US remained the top desination, closely followed closely by China (21,752 tonnes), Japan (21,444 tonnes) and South Korea (20,076 tonnes), according to data from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

US analyst Len Steiner said tariffs remained a major factor despite having slipped from the headlines.

“Some sellers have opted to cancel loads they had on the books for delivery later in the summer,” Mr Steiner said.

“It is hard to assess the impact of this on the market, particularly since there was a significant volume shipped in February and March.”

Mr Steiner said demand from China was a “big wild card”.

“We expect China beef imports to be slightly lower than a year ago as the Chinese economy faces growing headwinds given the ongoing trade war with the US,” Mr Steiner said.

Meanwhile, sheepmeat figures were also strong in April, with 31,143 tonnes of lamb and 17,748 tonnes of mutton shipped for the month.